Epping Ongar Railway

Evening All,

It's been a busy old summer / autumn and I'm more than a bit behind with dealing with all the pictures I took. However, now that winter's here I'm starting to catch up and have put a dozen pictures from the EOR gala in June on Flickr.

If anyone would like to see them this is the first one in the Photostream :

RD11263. 7820 arriving at North Weald, by Ron Fisher, on Flickr

They can also be found in this Album together with the pictures I put on earlier :

https://www.flickr.com/photos/train-pix/albums/72157651840048084

Hope that they're still of interest even if they're not hot news!

 

A compilation from various visits to The Epping Ongar Railway (my local Heritage Line) from 2013 to 2016.

 

Just to report on a pleasant trip to this line, which is making the best of things. Last Saturday, I took the TfL train to Epping, and then walked along the Essex Way to Ongar, a very pretty route through the fields and woodland, passing The Green Man pub at Toot Hill for a nice lunch and good beer and making a small diversion to view the delightful old closed station at Blake Hall. Ongar is also a well preserved country station and the dmu gave great views as it made its way to North Weald (another superb country station), and beyond to the end of permitted operation quite close to Epping. I think this line has good potential; if I were a Londoner I'd be a regular visitor.

 

Blimey - took a while to find this thread.
Took a trundle on the weekend - trains and dinosaurs (ironic when you think what makes the diesels go...)
It's always a bit awkward to get to with Park at Epping and Bus to North Weald, but a well-run day coping with a slightly malingering steam engine (GW 0-6-2).
Sitting in non-aircon stock is rather noticeable when it stops. Engine crew must have been sweltering.

Good mix of people old and young, both as volunteers and as passengers. We'll be back for the Santa Special as usual.

 

Called in at the Green Man on my visit to the E&O a couple of weeks ago. Sadly the only cask ales were Greene King so I went without. The railway was fun though apart from their bacon baguette being a bit thin on the bacon front.

 

And coal is 'fossilized' forest...

Noel

 

Former Dartmoor Railway Wickham trolley arrived last week, along with the visiting Class 14 for the Diesel Gala this weekend. I believe the Class 20 was due to land late yesterday or early today too. The team working on the Wickham got it started Saturday and did a little testing within the yard. There's a list of jobs to do to bring it up to scratch but nothing major.



A general update based on questions I've seen elsewhere:

205205, whilst mechanically operational again, is awaiting structural bodywork repairs before it can re-enter service.
Two RSH Uglies arrived from Ruddington. The plan is to overhaul the first once Large Prairie 4141 is complete, the boiler of which is still away for work, but the chassis resides in the shed at North Weald. This is being worked on in-house now by the paid staff and volunteer assistance.
03119 was partially dismantled for bodywork repairs and other work, but more pressing projects have stalled this.
Isabel is awaiting the return of refurbished axle boxes.

Next year will mark the 10th Anniversary of the line re-opening in its current guise, and there are plans being made on what can be done to mark this.

 

Nice to also see a picture of Badger. I remember playing with that when it first arrived.

 

Just looked on trip-advisor, and for a laugh read the 1 star reviews. Hats off to the railway for the responses.

What is the likely timescale for the uglies?

 

For some reason 2 ex Island Line 1938 tube EMUs are no longer going to the E&O to be battery operated as hoped but to Wales instead? Maybe as it is a mostly steam train operation now?
https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2021/0...-trains-have-found-a-home-in-south-wales.html

 

LTTG have reported in the end EOR decided they didn’t have space for a restoration project but might be open to hosting an operational unit in future.

 

Nothing concrete yet, and will depend on how extensive the work ends up being. I believe both need new fireboxes (or part thereof) which will be a costly job. 4141 is probably not likely to be back in service until 2023 at the earliest (though never say never) so probably safe to assume it will be a few years after that before we see on of the Uglies in steam.

 

Yes I love the trip advisor grumbles and the detailed responses by the railway’s Dean Walton, General Manager. My favourites are the customer who grumbled about seeing trees out of the carriage window and the customer who posted a grumble about a Santa Special 9 days prior to the railway starting its Santa Specials. I don’t know Mr Walton but I like him.

 

Hmm (Can I say 'told you so' now? ).
https://www.national-preservation.com/posts/2585705

 

https://www.eorailway.co.uk/events/diesel-running-day-with-37029/

Additional running day with 37029 on October 23rd.

Class 14 should be leaving this week to return to the SVR.

 

A few of next year's events are starting to appear on the the website, including the Steam Gala which will coincide with the 10th Anniversary of re-opening under the current guise.

https://www.eorailway.co.uk/events/10th-anniversary-gala/

A visitor for this has already been agreed and announced in the Volunteer's quarterly newsletter.

 

Well I am already excited for this! I honestly hope it's something they have NEVER had before, be nice if it wasn't GWR or Swindon either.

 

"A special guest steam locomotive, making its first visit away from its home line since overhaul."

So not 2999 then.

* ducks *

 

No, but Pendennis should be finished by then.....

 

In effect, their are TONNES of engines that haven't been anywhere since overhaul or before:

51456 From East Lancs.
957 From Keighley.
34072 From Swanage.
1340 From Didcot.
80136 From NYMR.
506 From MHR.
34027 From SVVR.