Club outing to the Tanat Valley Railway near Oswestry
Saturday 9th Sept 2017
During the heritage weekend in September, members of the club spent a happy couple of hours at the Tanat Valley Railway. Ok, Jim, Jacob and myself (David) spent the whole weekend there and aim to become members and volunteers.
Our thanks go to club member Tony for arranging the visit, and special thanks to Mark, Mike, John, Hayley and Harriot for looking after us and giving us all an insight into this wonderful little gem, hidden away in the Welsh hills near Oswestry.
The DMU's weren't running that weekend, but we were delighted to find the light monorail railway up and running. Better yet, we were able to run a diesel unit ourselves after some tuition from Mike.
These monorail units were built by Road Machines of Drayton in Middlesex between 1948 to about the mid 1970's, and were used mainly by the road construction companies during the building of sewers and water works. In fact my father would have used one in his work as a water works construction engineer, and I found one machine which bore the name plate of the area he was based at.
This large amount of historic monorail equipment forms part of the Richard Morris Collection, including the beautiful blue steam engine named "MONOLOCO". Last used around 10 years or so ago at Ffestiniog, it is now residing in a shed awaiting tlc and I would suspect a rebuild. The dedicated carriages are in a sorry state, having been soaked at some stage, the plywood has de-laminated and rotted away in large sections. Luckily there is enough left to make templates to rebuild them. I would dearly love to get involved in restoring the carriages and the loco, so will be contacting Mark soon.
Our thanks go to club member Tony for arranging the visit, and special thanks to Mark, Mike, John, Hayley and Harriot for looking after us and giving us all an insight into this wonderful little gem, hidden away in the Welsh hills near Oswestry.
The DMU's weren't running that weekend, but we were delighted to find the light monorail railway up and running. Better yet, we were able to run a diesel unit ourselves after some tuition from Mike.
These monorail units were built by Road Machines of Drayton in Middlesex between 1948 to about the mid 1970's, and were used mainly by the road construction companies during the building of sewers and water works. In fact my father would have used one in his work as a water works construction engineer, and I found one machine which bore the name plate of the area he was based at.
This large amount of historic monorail equipment forms part of the Richard Morris Collection, including the beautiful blue steam engine named "MONOLOCO". Last used around 10 years or so ago at Ffestiniog, it is now residing in a shed awaiting tlc and I would suspect a rebuild. The dedicated carriages are in a sorry state, having been soaked at some stage, the plywood has de-laminated and rotted away in large sections. Luckily there is enough left to make templates to rebuild them. I would dearly love to get involved in restoring the carriages and the loco, so will be contacting Mark soon.