Halton Miniature Railway - Episode 111 of Miniature Railway Britain.

Hello, thank you for joining me. You can see where I am. I'm at Runcorn East. I've never got out of this station before. I've passed through once or twice in the past. I've come here today though to visit the Halton Miniature Railway. So today it's an episode of Miniature Railway Britain. There's one, it's not a problem, but it's 11.13pm right now. The railway doesn't open until 1pm, so I've got a bit of time to kill. So what I'm going to do, I've noticed somewhere quite a nice park I've seen from the west coast main line. I'm going to go down there and just have a look at that and then we're going to go to the Halton Miniature Railway. So there's a train going the other way. That'll be my train back to Chester this afternoon. I came here from Chester this morning. It's a funny station because it feels really, really rural. If you look around, I can't see any buildings at all, but we are actually in the middle of a housing estate. So my plan is to walk down through the houses down to the Bridgewater Canal and we might see some full-size trains, more full-size trains on the west coast main line and then of course we'll come back here, back over this bridge and through the trees up that way is the Halton Miniature Railway. After walking through the very green housing estate, I have found the Bridgewater Canal and where I'm headed for is just over there and that's where we're going to have two railways. The railway line from Rye and Corneet which we've just been on and the west coast main line. I'm now on an upper section of the canal. I get a really good view across. That's the west coast main line. See that water tower? That's actually where I'm heading for. So like I say, I've only come here because I've arrived a bit early and I've got some time to kill. But these paths here, I've seen these many times from trains on the west coast main line and I've always thought one day I would love to walk those paths. Today is that day. Other things to point out as the canal continues off that way, that's definitely a walk for another day. I'm going to go down this footpath here through the middle of the field. You can just see what's left of Fiddler's Ferry power station. It's another landmark and when these power stations are all gone, it's not going to be the same travelling up and down east coast west main and coast main lines because they're like my landmarks. Anyway, we're going to go down there. I'm probably going to stop halfway down that field and see a train. I don't know which train, we're just going to see whatever comes along. I haven't seen a train on that side of the railway. I've come down under here over the river and in this path, I've seen this from the railway many times. I've often thought it's a really nice path to walk along because you've got the line over there, that's the line I arrived on. I didn't travel on that bit because I came from Chester, but it continues on over the west coast main line and joins at Warrington Bank Quay. Once again, the west coast main line, you can see the path there, that's where I was, where we saw that Pendolino. I want to see another train, Speed North. I'll follow this path around, probably end up going through that viaduct, underneath that viaduct and then head up towards Watertower. So having walked around by the west coast main line, I'm now heading back up the hill. I've just passed Ron Corning station and I'm on my way to railway. Now I've noticed this road here, it looks like an ordinary road, it's eerily silent of traffic and just by having a quick look, I think what it is, is it's a busway, so it's purely for buses, no cars. It's not a guided busway like I've seen in some of my videos, like say from Luton to Dunstable. It's not one of those, but I believe it must be purely for buses. I just had a look on a map and it tends to go all around the Ron Corn area, so I quite like the idea of it. I don't think I'm going to worry about riding it today. If it was trams, it'd be a different matter, I would have been riding it. And look, you get to here and see the roads painted red, there's a bus stop and there was one down there at Ron Corn East. I was thinking it's almost like a tram stop, so that must be, to Ron Corn again and have a ride around. As for getting from, if you ever are going to this railway, do go to Ron Corn East station like I did. Don't go to the main Ron Corn station, because that really is quite a long way from here. In fact, I saw a sign, it's about four miles away, so we're quite a long way from the centre of Ron Corn. Oh, and I've just realised where this bus stop is here. The road bends and goes over the tunnel, which we could see on the line at the station. So this is why it's so eerily quiet. So if you are coming to this railway, there's not a lot of point in getting a bus, just one stop. So I'm going to continue on, I'm going to leave the roadway, busway, whatever you want to call it here, head off up into the woods, and when we get to the top of the hill, we shall hopefully find the railway. After quite an interesting walk and a bit of exploring, you can hear the sound of a loco, and there we are. There's the railway, there it says Alton Miniature Railway, and getting ready. I don't think they're quite ready to open yet, but there's a loco there waiting. So as soon as they're ready, we should go and have a ride. Here we are at the engine shed. They've kindly invited me into the engine shed. There's the first train of the day waiting to go out, so I've been told to get on that train. We've got class 20 here, a couple other locos, so we're going to go out and we're going to have a ride around Alton Miniature Railway. Yeah, that's good. Okay, thank you. That was a very interesting ride, I really enjoyed that. I think I might be off on the next one shortly. I like this section here, it's like a little bit of tramway running. It's a very extensive line, heads out into the park. I'm tempted to go up and have a look. You may have seen it from the train, there was an inner loop, or only half of an inner loop. We might go and have a look at that, but let's watch the next train, the Hymek, which we've just travelled behind, running along this tramway section. Just out in the park doing a bit of linesiding. That's Hillside Halt, named for fairly obvious reasons, there's a hill going up there. This miniature railway, it made a cameo appearance in the comedy show Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. I always remember watching it, it's always a miniature railway, I wonder where that is. And this is the miniature railway it was, and this is where it happened. So what I'm going to do, we're not going to see Johnny in it, but we're going to see a train at the same point where a train was seen in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. That was good to recreate the Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps shot. Like I say, there was no Gaz and Johnny in it, but it was actually some of the same carriages that were in the show, just a different loco. As for Buffalo Bill, well here's a picture from Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. As for Buffalo Bill, Buffalo Bill is still at this railway, not running today, but Buffalo Bill is in the shed here. So there you go, that's the Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps shot done, let's see what else we can find. As I continue my line siding, there's a level crossing there, I'm just following the railway here. One thing I always find fascinating about miniature railways is other bits of track that you don't necessarily get to ride. I've noticed here there is a junction, this was a shorter loop, it's disconnected at the other end, so physically it looks like you could run a train up here. I'm tempted to follow this and have a look at the the one section of the miniature railway we didn't ride. So yeah, into the woods, I think it should be a short walk along here, and you can see the track which gets to the other end of the line. There is a residential housing estate just along there. Oh yeah, this is interesting, you can see the older duty type of track as well along here, so the section of that is still intact. See how it's a less heavy duty rail? Oh yeah, and we get to here, and I think the train's just passed, so we've missed the train passing, but this is the site of a junction. I'm going to make my way back and hopefully we shall see a train passing at the other end of the junction. Hello, I've done a bit of line siding, it's raining, so what I'm going to do for a bit of fun, I'm going to bring Pixie out and have a ride behind Pixie, so that'll be the second loco at the railway I've had for haulage today. I'm just waiting for Pixie to come out, so there she is, so I'm going to get right behind Pixie. Pixie was the first loco at this railway. The railway opened in 1979, so when you came here, when this railway was brand new, that's what you'd have been riding by. The railway's changed a bit over the years, but we're going to ride the railway behind that first loco. I've had a very enjoyable afternoon here at the Halton Minutes Railway, despite the weather. As you can see, I'm very wet, but I've enjoyed being here. The railway, very friendly railway, very friendly volunteers, showed me around and even gave me one of these. Look at this, I've got a really nice souvenir of the railway. This was there in 2003, so I'm going to keep this and look good on my wall at home. So thank you very much for watching from Mousetrap Hall, the main station on the Halton Minutes Railway. Please do feel free to like, share, comment, subscribe and goodbye.