Toddington and Evesham
Slim gauges in the South-West Midlands
29 May 2005
Two venues in one day - Toddington, for
a ride on the now-extended North
Gloucestershire Narrow Gauge Railway,
in the company of our old friend "Taffy",
and a visit to the Evesham Vale Light
Railway, to see two 15" gauge
Geoff’s Rail Diaries
locomotives in action.
We had visited both lines previously - but had
failed to see steam on the narrow gauge at
Toddington. The line only seems to run on
Sundays in summer, and last time we had been, a
bright yellow Hunslet diesel had been in action.
"Chaka's Kraal", the rather nice 0-4-2T,
had been in steam the previous few
weeks, but was temporarily out of action. Huh!
Recently, the railway press had mentioned Taffy's visit,
along with some scheduled dates for operation - so off
we went.
The line had doubled in length since our last visit.
Running from the car park, it skirts the western edge of
the yard to a depot about 400 yds away. This was the
southern terminus previously - today, after a pause to
visit the depot and view the locomotives, we continued
on down the Didbrook extension, which ends in a run-
round loop, with no facilities for passengers to leave
the train. The return trip runs straight back to the
northern station beside the car park - a pleasant-enough
run, and probably quite far enough, given that the
coaches all seem to have square wheels....
Link:
Toddington Narrow Gauge Railway
Taffy at Toddington
A trip down the line and a Toddington departure
There was still some afternoon left - we headed for Evesham,
where, as well as the railway, there are shops and other
facilities which would keep the "household
authorities" amused for a while... We'd been
here a couple of times before too - on
both occasions, 5751 "Prince William"
had been in action. I have to admit, I
find the miniature locomotives based
on narrow-gauge practice much more
satisfying - I suppose because they are
less obviously models.
Today I was in luck - there were two such
locomotives out on the line. "St. Egwin" was built for
the line at the Exmoor Steam Railway's workshops,
and is a little unusual in that it has been built as an
0-4-0, with side tanks and a tender. The other active
locomotive was "Dougal", built by Severn-Lamb in
1970 for the railway at Longleat. "It could hardly
manage three coaches when we got it". It was doing
OK today!
Link:
Evesham Vale Light Railway
Evesham Vale
Dougal and St Egwin in action on the 15" gauge line
