ÖSlJ, Mariefred, Sweden

The latter is in use on one of the 891 mm preserved railways in Sweden, (Jädraås Tallås Järnväg)
https://www.facebook.com/160160504179308/photos/a.858308544364497/1035050350023648/?type=3&theater

Called "slither points" in Swedish.

 

There used to be a three way stub point at Portmadoc, which if I didn't know it had been there I would have thought was a bad photoshop. I think it was taken out in the 1960s. I don't know of any diamond crossings.


http://www.photobydjnorton.com/FfestiniogRailway.html

 

We have a Double on the NYMR in use by every movement North of Grosmont P2 and 3.
Another in Pickering yard leading to the C+W.
Another in the yard at Levisham.
Also a slip at Goathland under Cowath Bridge.

 

Very interesting per see, but my lengthy description of why we use double slip was just to describe why this was the one and only solution we could find.
We could not find a viable solution using other equipment.
Please keep discussions on odd points and track solutions in a separate thread (went into the trap myself, sorry).

Comments or questions on our work and railway are always welcome.

 

I would call the 'Baeseler' an outside slip. I am sure that I once saw that as the definition of 'Baeseler'.
The Ropley point was my idea for using what we had (we couldn't afford to get a double slip made, and second-hand ones are never worth the trouble). It was inspired by a set in Woking Down Top Yard, which gets hammered by every stone train to Day's yard. It means a double move (or did when I was last involved), but given the (lack of) drainage a double slip would be a catastrophe.
I had never heard the term 'Barry Slip' before. Every day a school day.
Pat

 

Work continues, slowly getting there...
Photo by project manager Ola Dahlström,
wish I could be there.

 

This year it has been a summer as no other, for all of us, I guess.
We had to postpone the start of our traffic season until early July. But then it worked as we had hoped for.
People had to stay locally during their vacation and needed things to do with their kids. With suitable adaptations like: limited seating, no cash, no ticket collection etc. we ran as much trains we could during July and early August.
Only our two big engines (Nos. 5 and 9) could handle the trains. Both fresh out of overhaul last year and this. Maximum length 8 or 9 carriage trains when we had one engine in service and all available 13 carriages when both engines were in service.
Most trains sold out (with the limited seating).
Thus a good but very short season.
As no galas or events are allowed, we ran only "enhanced" traffic the last day of the ordinary season. Five steam engines, two diesels and our 1916 battery electric. See photos from the day:
https://museijarnvagenimariefred.se/
Tomorrow (Saturday) we will run Halloween trains in the dark. Did this last year and it seems to be a great interest this year as well.
After discussions with the local business association, we will not have any Santa specials this year

 

This year we had a similar summer to last year; short season, but lot of traffic with many visitors when we were able to run.
We were able to run the youth camp as usual in July, and in August our younger members organized their own day. A full traffic day with two steam trains in operation, and all participating staff (total of 17) were between 13 and 29 years old. The youngest worked as ticket collectors. Picture below of most of the staff, missing are the staff manning Läggesta station and some of the Café staff.


Saturday 25 September we ran the traditional end of season gala. The two days before had miserable weather but Saturday was as good as anything could be. Five steam locos and one diesel in service all day from 10 am until 10 pm. Long 17 hour day for us on the footplates, but worth every minute of it. See the video filmed and edited by an 11 year old visitor. Well made. I am the driver of Mallet No. 5. Unfortunately No. 2 Virå does not appear in the video, but you can't be everywhere at the same time.


As previous years we will also run Halloween trains for two days at the end of October. This has been very successful and popular with local families.

 

A standing tradition for the last 50+ years in Mariefred, Sweden, has been the yearly end of season gala. This year it will be on Saturday 27th September. There will be five of our own steam engines plus two diesels running as much trains as possible from 10 am to 10 pm.
The time table can be seen here: https://www.oslj.nu/sv-SE/tider-priser-2025/museibanans-dag-27-9-47016110
Mind you that Läggesta nedre (Lgn) is a terminal station, which means that all trains have to be turned around on a station that is only three tracks wide.
As train graphs are not widely use in the UK, you may see a good explanation here:
Making just the planning is a big job each year, as it has to include plans for all shunting operations as well as time for care of both engines and staff. In total, we are about 50 volunteers working a day like this.

One of the more memorable gala day in recent years was the one in 2022. At that time we had the boiler for our Brigadelok, No. 8 Emsfors away for repair of the the front tube plate, thus with only 4 of our own steam locos, we had a unique historic diesel on loan. Read more on: https://blogg.oslj.nu/museibanans-dag-2022/
Use your web based translation tool if you want to read the full text and double click to see the photos full size.

 

That's a good explanation of train graphing. Actually graphing is how much of the UK network is validated. Plotting a STP path on to the permanent graph is much faster for finding conflictions or headway issues than working from junction reports. Station platform graphing is another skill which is more dependant upon platform reoccupation times and restrictions. ( From experience Cambridge before the new platforms were added was much harder than a large terminal station.)

Cheers, Neil