Terrier 150 29/7/22

Members of the 3mm Societies Woking Group went on a day out to the Bluebell as the final weekend of July saw an event take place to mark the 150th Birthday of Bluebell Terrier No.72 'Fenchurch', with visiting Kent & East Sussex Terrier No.70 'Poplar' recently overhauled and Isle of Wight Steam Railway W11 'Newport'.

Unfortunately, the gala did not go quite to plan. It was announced a few weeks before the event that sadly Fenchurch's overhaul would not be completed in time and that she would not be able to take part.

The troubles did not stop there. In the lead up to the event,guest engine GWR 6989 'Wightwick Hall' had failed the week before and was replaced with BR Standard 4 tank 80151, 

On the day of our visit (Friday), visiting Terrier 'Poplar' suffered a failure to her inside motion, ruling her out for the rest of the weekend.

Being one of the hottest days of the year, there were also numerous lineside fires with fire engines rushing around various locations and a different kind of smoke being emitted at Horsted Keynes!

Nevertheless, the show went on, the event was still very enjoyable. Southern Railway Q Class 30541 and Standard 4 80151 handled the main services whilst the last remaining Terrier W11 'Newport' double headed with SECR O1 No.65 on a local service between Sheffield Park and Kingscote. 

Whilst it didn't go to plan, we had a thoroughly good day out at a fine heritage railway with a rides on the trains and soaking up the Bluebell atmosphere and other attractions".

Celebrating Terrier 150

Long time in completion, but started this 3mm Albion Terrier kit awhile back. Originally planned for Wimblehurst Road I thought it would be a good model for the 13.5 layout as Wimblehurst needs a rebuild to make it more portable for exhibitions.

So set to work on the Terrier and have almost completed the body, she even has a name Daphne. If your wondering the story, originally Daphne was purchased by the Colonel for the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire railway and was sold back to the Southern Railway around 1946 as source of spares and there she lingered on the Eastleigh scrap road until being cut up. 

My story goes that the works foreman took pity and they restored her to her former glory to work out of Tankerton Town shed as they were short of small locos to work the push/pull.

Addendum: Thanks to a donated chassis, will now run as 14.2 gauge on the refurbished/mark II, Wimblehurst road.

Poplar Loco

Bit late posting these photos. Visit to Poplar DLR depot to see Bodiam (alias Poplar) as restored to working order for Terrier 150 celebrations.