Santa's Little Helpers

Your humble scribe has been otherwise engaged this weekend, so I have had to depend on my network of spies to keep me informed of developments.  

As you may recollect from last week, Dinmore Manor's old tender was temporarily re-wheeled to permit other projects to make use of the lifting jacks.  The first of these was one of the steam loco dept's diesel shunters (Des).  My spy on this occasion said little more than the fact that it was off its wheels, which is fairly easy to ascertain from the following couple of photos.  News on the condition of its axle boxes, which prompted the lift in the first place has not been forthcoming.  I will apply thumb screws to the relevant parties next week to ascertain what progress has been made.

Des on the jacks (photo courtesy of John Cruxon)

One wheel set dropped (photo courtesy of John Cruxon)

The news from 2807 is that it is expected to be in steam every weekend day (plus Friday 22nd) between now and the end of the year at the Llangollen Railway.  She will be returning to us in early January for her winter maintenance programme.

Chris and Frances, who have put in sterling service over the years as Christmas Elves have sent through a selection of photos of the seasonal preparations at Toddington... the only problem is, that their sat nav is clearly on the blink as it directed them initially to Minehead instead:

That would be where the other "Real Santa" will be for the next few weeks!

Eventually, they managed to plug the right coordinates into their Santa Sat Nav and ended up at Toddington:

"The elves were out and about getting our station ready for the visit of the red robed guy the following weekend : just in case he creeps in by car ....

 

The sleigh needed attention from The Sleigh Commander and his assistant

Meanwhile the decoration process was well under way ..

Lights, camera, action...

...lots of action...

...with Rose bopping along to Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' ?

So what's hidden in front of ' Lapland ' ? 

Well, our visitors next weekend will find out !!

Mind you, even Elves claim they need a tea break from the frantic activity in their workshop

And even though some are scaling great heights of achievement...

...others have found what a fantastic job Carriage & Wagon have done with W4763

This is for the passengers to enjoy their fabulous hot mince pie and drink after their trip on the Diesel Experience, you two - get back to work!  Which we all will be doing on Monday and Friday, all ready for the children to enjoy from next Saturday on!"

Thank you very much to Chris Crump for the above photos and explanatory notes (in grey).  Toddington Lapland is where of the course the "Real Father Christmas" will be, dispensing presents to "nice" boys & girls who have been on the DMU, this is of course interspersed with his frequent trips down to Winchcombe The North Pole where he will be giving presents to the "nice" boys & girls who have arrived on one of our steam trains.  He's a very busy chap that Santa Claus, no wonder that he needs to take the rest of the year off after Christmas.

As for the steam loco dept, Saturday marked the first day of the public Santa trains.  For the Santa season, as the turns make for a fairly long day, we are experimenting with having prep crews turn up (if you need to ask, you can't get up that early) to dispose of both locos and light them up for the day crews to take over.  Reports on social media suggest that the promised supply of breakfast for the prep crews is going down well... in fact too well, with more than the rostered number of people turning up to benefit from it. 

5526, tinselled up and ready to go (photo courtesy of Jeremy Booth)

Dinmore Manor, pre-tinsel (photo courtesy of Jeremy Booth)

Prep crew warming device in action (photo courtesy of Jeremy Booth)

Dinmore Manor is now getting something of a reputation for rescuing other trains, as it was tagged on to 5526's train as far as Winchcombe to assist with the steam heating of the carriages during the empty coaching stock (ECS) move to Cheltenham Race Course.

Double headed ECS move, something of a rarity (photo courtesy of Phil Grange)