Princetown Branch Goods Shed

 

A beautiful 4mm scale model of the Princetown goods shed found on the GWR Modelling web site. This is the first time I've seen the goods shed in color! All the pictures of the actual shed which exist are in black & white. Ian Payne has done a fantastic job modeling this important Princetown building, and hopefully he has some more Princetown structures on the way.

Note: 4mm scale is 1/76, or "OO" scale. The "4mm" means that one scale foot is equal to 4 millimeters. Why the British mix standard and metric measurements like that is beyond my understanding...

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The Fairford Branch Line (UK)

 

In my searches through the Internet, I've stubled upon an excellent little web site devoted to The Fairford Branch Line created and maintained by Martin Loader. Like the Princetown Branch, Fairford was owned and operated by the Great Western Railway. The line ran west from Yarnton Junction (just three mile from Oxford) to it's terminus at Fairford. It closed in 1962, and the rails were quickly removed. Some of the stations and buildings remain, but most have been torn down over the years.

Martin has done a fantastic job providing a free, online historical pictorial of the well known and well liked branch line, and I encourage everyone to visit his site and admire his hard work.

British branchlines are a rarity now-a-days, and sites like Martin's provide us with a way of enjoying these now defunct railroads. These old lines have a charm and a simplicity that warm the heart.

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Polish steam alive and well...

In my previous post, I mentioned a wonderful article on RAILROAD.NET about steam engines in Poland. Well, while browsing through YouTube, I found some excellent videos of those very steam engines. Here a couple of clips:



A beautiful 2-8-2 Mikado type steam engine being turned on a turntable! (You don't see images like this every day!)



A similar locomotive, pulling a small passenger train.

God bless Poland!

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RAILROAD.NET - The Railroad Network

Want to find out more about trains, or talk to other people who are interested in railroading? Then RAILROAD.NET is the place to be. It is an online forum for talking about trains and railroads with people from all over the world.

While the focus of RAILROAD.NET is American and Canadian railroads and operation, there are forums dedicated to a number of differnt topics, even model railroading.

Make sure to check out an article by Joe Grossman about a modern day steam powered mainline railroad in Poland, where you can drive and fire the locomotives! The article is entitled The Wolsztyn Experience - Steam Lives in Poland. Basically a couple of Americans go to Poland to drive steam engines, and it's all arranged by an Englishman.

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Yelverton to Princetown - Rails Across The Moor

And here is a DVD to get in the near future Yelverton to Princetown-Rails Across the Moor from aarchive.co.uk.

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Color pictures of the Princetown Branch

This June 2006 issue of BackTrack is suppose to have COLOR (or COLOUR) pictures of the Princetown Branch! Note to self: get a few back copies of this magazine.

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Welcome!

This is the first ever posting to the Princetown Branch blog. Why the funny name? Well, the blog is named after a railroad branch line that ran from Yelverton to Princetown in Devon, UK. The branch line was pulled up and sold for scrap in the late 1950's, but it lives on here at the Princetown Branch blog.

This blog will be dedicated to trains and railroad of all types, from all over the WORLD! Both real trains and model trains will be featured. The blog will mainly content itself with the railroads of the USA and UK, but any railroad anywhere in the world will be fair game. Expect to see lots of pictures and video as well.

And yes, I'll even have the occasional blog posting about the namesake of this blog: the Princetown Branch.

Here's to an interesting adventure!

__ooOOO__ [Note the cute little sign-off symbol to the left--my tribute to the wonderful Great Western 4-6-0 steam engines! And those 4-6-0's that served well on other lines as well, like the Southern's Lord Nelsons, the LMS Black Fives, and BR's Class 5MT.]