Tonbridge Model Engineering Society - Miniature Railway Britain Episode 112.

Hello, thank you for joining me. I'm at Charing Cross and I'm about to get on this class 375 and travel down to Tunbridge. Today is an episode of Miniature Railway Britain. We're going to go and visit the Tunbridge Model Engineering Society's miniature railway. Here we are, that's Tunbridge, there goes my train. Well the unit we saw at Charing Cross, that was the front unit, this is the back unit, so I have literally walked from front to end of the train. We're going to obviously go to the Miniature Railway because that's what we've to do first. Down there you've got the junctions, you've got the line that goes up towards London and you've got that line that goes down towards Redfield. Now there's the yard, there's a footbridge that runs right over the top of the yard, so my plan is to do a slight detour, go around that way. I've always wanted to walk over that footbridge and see what I can see, so my train goes off that way, I'm going to make my way out of the station, let's go and have a look at the yard and then we're going to go to the Miniature Railway. I've just been walking through the houses for about 10 minutes, there's no path going off up there, I'm going to get to these steps here and this is going to take me up onto that bridge I've been under. Actually no, I haven't been under this bridge many times at all because it doesn't go over the track I'm talking about. I've seen it many times, I've only been under it about twice when I've done the line to Redhill. But well, look at this, it's a great bridge for watching trains. So having a look over there, you can see a Freightliner Class 66 in the yard, a Class 73-109 Battle of Britain over there, some Class 465s there and there's another Class 375, a Class 73, so we're going to have a look at those. So it's quite a fascinating bridge. Not necessarily for watching the movements on the main line, just for looking over the yard. There's few places like this in Britain where you get a quite literally, it takes you across the whole yard, hence why, well it's not really part of the Minutes Railway, not part of the Minutes Railway at all. I thought it was important we included it. So what have we got? Class 73 there, 136, oh the next one's called 141, Spar Valley Railway. It's quite often when I see this bridge, it's on the way to the Spar Valley Railway. Again, don't pass under the one on the track up there. There is another bridge I can just see over there, that's the one I'll be passing under. Class 73-213. Then there's another GBRF one, there's a Dutch-livered one, as they call it, and then there's one that was up east. I don't know if I've had that one, because when Kent and East Sussex Railway did their reopening to, or at, Roberts Bridge, I was shuttling up and down without loco and Britannia. So here we are, somewhere I have always wanted to visit. I'm going to continue on down there to find the River Medway, and on the other side of the River Medway, we shall find the miniature railway winner. Here's the River Medway, so I'm just going to walk across. There's quite a nice park over there behind me, so I've just been following the Medway around, and in front of me, here is the railway. So it's a racetrack miniature railway. I can see, in fact, I think, yeah, I can see a train, so hopefully a train should come round in front of us. So we'll wait here, we'll have a look at the railway, wait for the train, yeah, steam train as well, even better. Looks like, so we have five inch and three and a half, as I say, racetrack. There we are, there's a whistle, so what we'll do, watch the train go past, and then we shall go and have a ride. I always quite like the way racetrack runs. There's two trains out, there's a diesel as well, so we've got two trains to see, even better. Can you hear the sound of the steam train? It's over there, it's going to come around here. You'll see the diesel as well, kind of going one way. I think I've worked out the loop, it's like a big loop with a going in the middle. So here comes the steam train, let's watch that go by. Britannia class steam locomotive, didn't quite catch an angle, we'll have a look at that, and there's diesel out as well, so we'll definitely try and get a ride behind the steam locomotive. So like I say, it's a great big oval, you've got one loop there, goes in, out, around here, starts over there. As soon as diesel comes we'll go and have a ride. Always, as I say this every time I go, especially to a model engineering society, the exciting thing for me is you never quite know what you're going to see, and I deliberately don't really look to see what's running, I just see what turns up on the day. We've had a Britannia, now we're going to have a class 33 in EWS livery. I can just about remember seeing them in EWS livery. So what I'm going to do, I'm going to walk around to the station. Interestingly, they have also got a bit of full service rolling stock, they've got Southern Railway's van, so that makes, adds to the interest. So once I've had a ride, I'll do a bit of line siding around here and just watch what runs. The signal there, that's like your distance signal for the main station. I think the building on the other side of me is the local swimming pool. It's a very interesting place, I've never been to Tunbridge before, I've changed trains that I've never actually got out there, so I'm enjoying without, yeah what I've seen so far of the town, even without the major railway, it does seem like a very pleasant town. So that's all good. Right, I'm arriving at the station, so what I'm going to do, I'm going to join the queue, we'll have a look at the Southern Railway's van afterwards once we've had a ride. Thank you very much. I've just had a ride behind the Britannia, which is number 70052 Firth of Tay, of course only two preserved, Britannia herself and Oliver Cromwell, so it's a nice day. I've been able to ride behind another one of the Classies, it's in miniature. What I'm going to do now though, I'm going to do a bit of line siding, I've found about sort of four good places though, and another steam loco has come out, so we've got the Britannia, the Class 33, and we'll watch them all at various locations, then maybe later on I'll go back and have another ride. I just began my line siding, now you may notice I'm somewhere where you wouldn't normally be allowed to go. Well, I've started line siding the first fence when one of the club members came along and very kindly gave me permission to come over here so I can line side, get some slightly different shots from perhaps what I would have been able to have got, because it's, I've noticed especially over there, there's a bank there, so I'll be able to get the steam locos especially working a bit harder on the bank. So I'm going to stand here, I've got a nice long straight here, and we'll watch the trains go by, and then we'll just follow the trains around, see what we can see. As I enjoy my hobby of watching the trains, and the club members enjoy their hobby of driving trains, and those people over there, they've got their hobby is canoeing, as I walked along here, I didn't do it on camera, but a load of canoes went past on River Medway, so it's one of those places I think quite interesting to see, everyone's happy, everyone's enjoying themselves, as I say Tunbridge genuinely seems like a nice town I've never been to before, so I'm going to continue on enjoying my hobby watching trains, it looks like they're going for a break from canoeing, I think I just saw another boat about to pass, yeah look again, there goes one boat passing, I'm about to switch the other camera to see what's going on. Having cleared the two steam locos for haulage, I'm just going to go past that. Having had a very enjoyable afternoon at the railway, just as I was going they got a class 66 now, so I also got some shots of that, but then quite a lot of people came, so I didn't worry about having a ride, but I rode the two steam locos and behind a class 33. If you're wondering where I am now, I'm not at the Hughes railway, I'm in the moat of the castle, and the dog so I'm just having a look at the castle, but I thought as soon as we were here it would be nice to see the castle, now it's not really a video on the castle, so I don't know too much about it, but it'll be nice to see it, there we are the castle, the gatehouse in front of me. What I was aiming for, is if I can, is to go up this mound, I believe you can go in the castle, that's a separate admission fee, which I probably won't do today, I don't even know if it's open, but maybe it's something to do another day, so I'm down here in the moat that doesn't actually have any water. My main reason for including the castle was it's something interesting, I also have an interest in castles, and if you do come to Tunbridge to visit the miniature railway, why not visit the castle as well, I understand the railway runs every Saturday and Sunday in Great British summertime, so it's quite an easy one to remember. And then in front of me here is the castle, so I may not be able to go in there without paying, I'm certainly not trying to dodge paying, I'm just thinking if I'm going to do the castle, I'd rather know I've got time to do the whole castle, but here we are at the front of the castle, I'm going to go ahead and see what I can find. That was nice and easy, I just walked straight into the castle, what you have to pay to do if you do a guided tour, so I think that will take you up on the roof of the gatehouse, they've got a gift shop there, so the indoor bits of the castle basically you have to pay to do, but to visit this courtyard is free. The railway, like I say, is over the other side of the mound down there, and I can see people zigzagging up the hill up to the top of the keep, so that's where I'm going to go now, and we'll finish the video up there. There I am zigzagging my way up, up the mound, see the views of Tunbridge, already getting some great views of the gatehouse, this is where the keep would have been, so we're nearly at the top, just got a few more zigzags to do, fantastic views out over there, keep going, look here we get to the base of the keep, so you can just see some of this wall here, we're nearly in, most of the keep is gone, look at that, great view, but we're not quite at the top, I've some steps here, so here we are, not a lot left, but it's a keep on top of a hill, and we get a great view out over the castle, the courtyard, the miniature railway, can we see that? I don't think we, we might catch a glimpse, it'd be a very novel place to see a train, no it's, it is down there in the trees, that's the park, you can just see, I said it was Swoonpool opposite the railway, you can just see the blueness of Swoonpool, that's the park which the Medway surrounds, it's almost like an island, because there's a few courses of the Medway, but I think the best view from up here undoubtedly is the view across the courtyard of the castle, so if you're coming to visit the Tunbridge Miniature Railway, why not also come have a look in the castle, because like I say, you can come up here, this is free, it makes a great day out to do the two together, so from Tunbridge with fantastic views, we're at the keep of the castle, just heard a whistle, we can still hear the trains, thank you very much for watching, thank you to everyone, all the volunteers at Tunbridge Model Engineering Society, very friendly, it's always very nice when they welcome you in and let you go, so I'll leave you with the view over the courtyard, thank you very much, please do feel free to like, share, comment, subscribe, goodbye.