Mid-Suffolk Light Railway

[Justyn Keeble]

As a volunteer at the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway I thought I'd share some images taken over the past two years since joining the MSLR. The Barclay 0-4-0 "Little Barford" has now left us as its boiler cert was nearly expired, she was replaced in August 2009 by a 1926 Hawthorn & Leslie 0-4-0ST locomotive "FD & E Co No.3" formerly of the Falmouth Dock & Engineering Co.

[richard]

Photos continue to look good, and I see a dumb-buffered wagon in there!

Where are the coaches from?
There aren't a huge number of fixed wheelbase coaches around...


Richard

[Autocar Publicity]

It looks as though you've captured the atmosphere of a rural light railway. Nice goods shots, I hope the line gets some reward for all the time and trouble people have put in to non-passenger carrying vehicles. It's a problem we face 'oop North' at the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway, most people like to see authentic goods vehicles, but translating that into money to fund the maintenence of the wagons or restoration of others is not always easy...

[Flamingo]

How long is your railway at present? Smaller preservation sites like the MSLR can be very attractive, they don't have the crowds or the sometimes hectic surroundings of the larger and perhaps better known railways. It looks a lovely little line and will definitely go on my list of places to visit. I wish it was a bit nearer though!

[Bryan]

The rulley wouldn't be one of the same type as in the the old York Carriage works photos?

[Justyn Keeble]

How long is your railway at present? Smaller preservation sites like the MSLR can be very attractive, they don't have the crowds or the sometimes hectic surroundings of the larger and perhaps better known railways. It looks a lovely little line and will definitely go on my list of places to visit. I wish it was a bit nearer though!

Thanks for kind comments chaps, and Flamingo you'd be most welcome!

Currently we have a quarter mile demonstration line, however planning permission/money etc permitting we'd like to initially push out a further 500 yards. Ideally we'd like to get as far as Aspal, but that's way off into the future! A surprising amount of the old trackbed still exsists, as does the original Aspal platform, though the buildings are long gone. We've only run trains since 2004 (the first trains running with very aptly with a J15, the same type that hauled the last train in July 1952!) and will never be the SVR or even the Poppy Line, but along with the museum the demo line gives our visitors a taste of what the MSLR was all about. I'm convinced that in time we'll get there, after all, the current MSLR setup was originally supposed to be nothing more than a static museum!

We currently have two former Great Eastern coaches, Brake/third No.12 dating from 1876, and No.13 dating from 1875. A number of our freight vehicles are privately owned, including an LNER van which I helped survey last year. Good progress is being made on this one, but as winter closes work will continue in the spring. I'll try get some pics posted of the progress as I'm up there on Saturday prepping for the first of our Santa Specials.

Sadly the shunting demos ceased at the second half of 2009 in favour of passenger working, but hopefully they'll be re-introduced in 2010. As Mr Autocar Publicity rightly states, it's difficult to justify freight and shunting demos when the kids are bored and just "want to ride on the steam train", and that's what brings us our income! We held a Vintage Rail & Freight event last year (see the picture above) and was deemed successful, so will be repeated again this year on Sunday June 6th 2010.

For those with Facebook accounts, I've set up a group there at http://www.facebook.com/justyn.keeble?r ... 671&ref=mf here you keep abreast of all our goings on.

[AlanMoore]

Here is a picture of the platform at Aspall. It suffers the indignity of being covered in manure for most of the year. http://alanmoore353.blokes.org.uk/p54178045.html

Rgds

Alan

[Justyn Keeble]

I dream of the day we could push out that far.