Acton Miniature Railway
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AMR report
The Acton Miniature Railway had a busy couple of days during the Museum Depot's Modelling Weekend. AMR General Manager, Adrian Allum, reports:
Regular visitors to the railway were the 1938 Tube Train and the Metropolitan live steam A-class loco. We had two steam locomotives visiting us from a private railway in Farnham: a SE&CR C-class and a GWR 14XX. Additionally, our "Sarah Siddons" was returned to us in the correct 7¼" gauge (the regular visitor, "Michael Faraday" was absent, due to the owner's involvement with an event at the West Somerset Railway) and a J70 (electric) loco was on standby! The temporary signals were clearly not happy about being is store for a year; we switched them off altogether and introduced single-line token working, using a 'decorated' 2BA spinner as the token! Where there's a will...! (For the non-technically minded, I am told that a spinner is shaped like a screwdriver, but has a hexagonal opening at the end, so that it acts like an end-on spanner - where a spanner is used side-on. "2BA" is the size. So now you know! Editor.)
Before the weekend, we certainly had a lot to do. The biggest job was getting our 7½" gauge "Sarah Siddons" loco regauged to 7¼"! At the same time, some bodywork repairs were made, but this is an ongoing job; and two new batteries were bought, to be dedicated for her use! The only bad news regarding rolling stock was that the wooden body on one of the old riding trucks had to be condemned; it had rotted to the point where it could not be secured to the chassis; building a new body is another new project!
Track repairs and alterations were a great improvement, including making the track where people board the trains straight and level. Not only is this safer, it looks much better also. The wooden ash-pit (don't ask...) was removed and replaced by the last of the track supplied. Another important job was at Harrisons Crossing, where the pea-shingle was replaced with a proper timber crossing; there's less risk of shingle getting stuck between the running rails and the check rails, now!
Following work at the Depot, some soil became surplus; we took as much as we could (as much as we had the energy to claim!) to use on the railway for small embankments to stop the ballast slipping away. This has certainly made a great improvement and was worth all the effort.