Alas, it looks like more severe COVID-19 restrictions may be about to return, but we have made the most of the opportunities to run our engines away from home in the last few weeks. On 30th August we headed west to Oxfordshire, as both Auric and Russell paid another visit to the Vale of White Horse Railway. Star attraction of the day was the VWHR's latest acquistion, No. K2 Chhogori, a Tasmanian Government Railways "K" class Garratt by Accucraft.There was also an opportunity to see the new, indoor scenic work at Uffington station.
Then, on 5th September we headed east when, for the first time, I joined a Hertfordshire Area Group meeting at Brambleton. It is probably the largest SM32 railway in the country and I had wanted to visit for several years, but somehow I had never quite got around to it! It took me a little while to get my head around the complex layout of interconnected circuits, but once I had mastered this I was able to enjoy a very pleasant afternoon of running. By curious coincidence another Tasmanian Garratt was also in operation, along with many other engines.
We didn't have to travel so far for our latest visit, which was to our Buckinghamshire neighbours, the Woodrow Light Railway. This line has lately developed something of an American theme: our hosts were able to show off their recently-acquired Roundhouse/Brandbright "Liberty Belle" 2-6-2, along with a very fine rake of Durango & Silverton bogie coaches adapted from Bachmann vehicles. Our friends from the VWHR also visited with their Roundhouse Leek & Manifold 2-6-4T J. B. Earle and their coal-fired Roundhouse "Billy" Brockhurst, although the latter sadly eluded my camera!