On May 7th Jo and I visited Didcot Railway Centre. We went, mostly, by train. It was car to Basingstoke 'cos they shut the Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway to passengers in 1932 then it was a Voyager to Reading and an HST (we did hit 125) to Didcot.
The centre were having a diesel running day. On the main demonstration line there was a Teddy Bear (Class 14) operating in push pull with a coach and a Collett auto trailer. We were invited into the cab.
I took a video https://youtu.be/5vjnGBp3DMY
At the end we walked to the broad gauge transfer shed and boarded GWR diesel railcar no 22.
Here is another video from the back. https://youtu.be/UA06VPh0Nxo
A good thing about Ddicot is you can wander around freely.
After a spot of lunch we went round the engine shed.
Now, when I was a kid around 8 to 9 I used to watch a Pararie shunting High Wycombe goods yard. We used to call them tanner oners. This engine in question was 6106. They used to fly shunt which was quite spectacular, the engine would go down the headhunt then the shunter would uncouple a wagon. The engine accelerated hard, often with wheel slip then braked and the uncoupled truck would sail off down the yard. Occasionally, if they got it wrong, it would bump into other trucks with a suitable amount of noise.
Anyway, guess which engine was in the shed. I hung on to the steps and then cabbed it.
We then repeated the trip on the demonstration lines in reverse and headed home.
A great day.
Cheers Graham
