Monochrome Monday. Bob Geeza Cat, Waving Wayne and Waving Willy and in the cab Waving Wally are as usual waving in sync, with Double Denim Dancing Dando having his usual shimmy. Meanwhile another moonshine still has exploded on Flat Holm out in the Bristol Channel, thus making Flat Holm slightly flatter than before.  You’ll be pleased to know that nobody was injured, for this is a regular occurrence and the moonshiners have an underground bunker they can quickly take cover in if it looks like things are about to go pear-shaped, or mushroom shaped in this instance ? Pic taken on real b ..read more

A happy Saturday at Brew Street, Freddy the Flag keeps an eye on the crossing whilst Waving Willy has jumped off the mobile moonshine production steam lorry to watch the arrival of a shiny wagon.  Basil The Brush, identical half brother to Spence the Spanner, has just repainted an old wagon into ‘Somerset Collieries Radstock’ livery after finding an old photograph. As well as being a railway historian, Basil is a dab hand with his brush, and with a few simple but swift dabs of paint can produce outstanding results in just a minute or two. He’s even able to get different colours out of th ..read more

I was looking for something else and this image from this very day 31 years ago on 12 April 1993 popped up of Pannier tank No. 1618 as it nears Tenterden on the Kent & East Sussex Railway. I grabbed on my Mamiya C33 with 80mm Sekor, Fujichrome RDP100.  I wonder if this view is still possible? Hopefully, for preserved lines are much better at trimming their bushes than those on the national rail network. But I’ve a hunch the tree might not be there, some of the overhanging branches look a little past their prime.  Looking outside this year, spring looks a little more advanced tha ..read more

July 1965 saw the very last goods train pass the site of Polbrook Gurney Colliery. The pit-head and associated buildings were demolished within 6 months of closing in 1962, with former Pedant & Armchair pub closing its doors the following year.  If you can find the site now, little remains other than the platform lurking in the undergrowth and a boggy area which used to be the canal basin and coal wharf. But there is a newish bungalow, more on that shortly.  A housing estate was to be built on the former colliery site, but due the the instability of the land, that’s still to hap ..read more

Rumour has it the Airfix based their well-known plastic kit on the brick, wood and tin engine shed on the one here at Combwich. The unusual feature was the powered propeller over the entrance. This apparently dates from the 1920s when the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway used the shed for aerodynamic streamline testing of the S&DJR 7F 2-8-0 which was given an aerodynamic shell. Apparently the streamlined LNER A4 and LMS Coronation pacific classes were inspired by this ground breaking experiment a few year later.  Sadly no photographs of the streamlined S&DJR 7F exist anywhere ..read more

Here in Little England, twice a year in preparation for the overnight clock change, the ancient ironstone circle has to be moved to reflect the loss or gain of an hour.  Luckily these days it’s a little easier with cranes and other such fangled machines of the modern age. However, a little manual manoeuvring is still required to adjust for the minutes, the big machines taking care of the hour change.  I rather wish that ‘Pickaxe’ Eddie wouldn’t use his pickaxe on the ancient stones, for I’m sure since he’s been involved twice a year, there are more stones than there used to be. I’m ..read more

These are the men who work on the track, all lining up in acknowledgement of the passing goods. From left to right we have Cyril Flagshaft, on days off he’s a pigeon fiddler, enthusiast and Piccalilli fanatic.  Next we have Edwin Jones, originally from Caerphilly, he creates miniature tea clippers from matchsticks with sails from cut up pillow cases. He sails them on the local pond where they capsize and sink in finest Mary Rose style.  Next we have Albert Clenchworm, he’s been digging a deep hole on his allotment for decades, no one know quite why, but he keeps muttering about Aust ..read more

For decades, Moorewood Colliery was a cover up for an illicit moonshine operation. The pretend mine was used as storage for casks of the illegal liquor. Potatoes used in the mash were dyed or painted black to look like coal. A huge still lived inside the winding house.  What looks like a winding cable was actually a hollow hose, it allowed freshly distilled liquor to be pumped directly to the underground storage facility.  Exit from the mine was on the level via a drift mine entrance in the back of The Pedant & Armchair pub 5 miles away ..read more

To commemorate 4 whole years of the ‘lockdown’ here in Little England, masked crusaders and Zombie Apocalypse of Doom work-shy lockdown-lovers Sharon & Tracy love to relive those halcyon plague days when they used to fight over toilet paper and Camembert cheese. They both have really bad teeth and a wasp chewer’s pout, so they welcome any excuse to wear a mask again made from chopped up dishcloths, old socks and for those more creative with a sewing machine, old underwear.  Local businessman Terry Tuttle-Thomas-Smythe has seen the business opportunity and decided to put on travelling ..read more

Spence the Spanner has been working all night with his big spanner and pot of grease. There’s nothing he can’t build with this versatile combination.  And here is is standing back this bright morning to examine his conversion of what was a GWR Collett 2251 into something more ‘continental’ looking.  Spence has always wanted to go abroad and mix with those continental types, especially with his love for garlic, red wine, smelly cheese and steam engines that look like are inside-out. But alas he doesn’t have a passport due to the fact that he’s struggled use his big spanner and grease ..read more