Mince Pie Special – Llangollen Steam Railway 2013

We drove over to Llangollen to catch the late afternoon train.

The loco was the Great Western Railway Freight Loco 2802, an 8F 2-8-0.
It breezed smoothly up the incline to Berwyn Station pulling the 5 coach set with ease.

We enjoyed the mulled wine and mince pie in the company of a couple who had just bought a canal boat, berthed at Chirk.

Mince Pie Special



The cab

From the archives!

 3802 standing in Llangollen Station

A great way to see out Christmas 2013!

Shutlingsloe - Annual Christmas Run 2013!

This year, to celebrate my increased levels of fitness, I took to the hills above Macclesfield Forest for the symbolic fell run to Shutlingsloe – sometimes referred to as the 'Matterhorn of the Peaks'!
Surprisingly, it was snowy above the tree line with some ice.

Looking up at the forest ridge through a felled section

A view back down to Macc Forest

 

A view up to Shutlingsloe – with the characteristic profile

 

I took the path down the northern gully and saw tracks of hares in the snow!

This view is looking east from this track.

A photo looking up to Shutlingsloe peak

 

The climb to the top

 

Trig point @ 506m/1660ft

It just remained to slither down the snowy slopes to gain the open access path back to Macc Forest.

 

 

 Looking back down to Macc Forest

The top fell path across to the 'top' car park

 

The run was a great 1 hour of snowy exhilaration and challenging terrain!

Unfortunately, the slippery surface got the better of me on the last descent as I missed my footing and fell – giving an ungainly impression of someone falling on ski Sunday!

There was no-one around to see my nil-point floundering – though a cut and bruised shin painfully reminded me of the challenges of the fells!

Happy Christmas 2013!

Bed 'Ole Floor – Job Done!

This job has been in process for a while so with Christmas arriving, it was time to just 'get it done'!

The bedroom corridor is not an easy place to work and it took some figuring out – and some cutting of the oak floor panels to get it all to fit.

 

Using the open radiator edge to start from. Note the drawer fronts have been taken off

Front hold being used as a workshop!

Floor cut into the drawer recesses – held in place with clothes pegs!

One drawer front back on

 With trim in place - job done!

Blowing my own Trumpet!

People may know how much I enjoy playing trumpet with the Wychcraft Big Band.

We had a trio of gigs just recently – finishing with a concert in the new E-Act Academy in Winsford.

Our trumpet group has 6 players and we try to gig with 4 trumpets to cover the parts.

I usually play 3^rd trumpet in the Section and have a couple of solos – one on Sing, Sing, Sing and one on the band classic, Peanut Vendor.

 

Wychcraft Big Band at Winsford

Go to our Wychcraft Big Band website or our Band Facebook page to get the links to a couple of numbers.

Blowing my own trumpet!