The tool van was finally taking shape with the roof all completed and the doors now hung, with just latches now to be fitted.

One of the consequences of laying track embedded into the ground is that even a small amount of snow grinds the railway to a halt. Because of the half buried rail a snow plough is not really a viable option so it's difficult to clear the snow from the rails.

In a very slick operation the Moës is very quickly back level and ready to depart for her new home after a little lashing down.

A beavertail car transporter is a very effective way of moving a relatively small loco. The end is dropped down, and the loco very quickly winched on without the use of the Hiab, so there is no risk of damaged bodywork and no need for any temporary loading ramp. The Moës left the site on the 24th November.

The second Clayton loco was coupled to the current working loco, and an extnsion cable soldered up to allow the battery to feed the new loco. It confirmed that all appeared to be in working order without the need for swapping batteries over. The controls needed a little fettling but that was all.

Easing the new Clayton off the back of the trailer, the usual point where a loco gets jammed is reached, and required a little gentle (or not so gentle!) crowbaring before the loco finally slid onto the track.

At Specialist Plant the new Clayton is forklifted to the hoist, where it is a simple matter of lifting up and ensuring the loco is placed exactly over the centre of the trailer wheels. So the Clayton left Specialist Plant on the 17th November.

A frequent activity, where the composted horse manure is emptied by hand for spreading over the fields. If nothing else, it keeps you fit!

With the engine cover still off, the rebuilt radiator has now been fitted back on and piped in.

After patching up, the fuel tank has had a couple of coats of undercoat and by now, had been internally sealed with some POR15.

Sadly once the radiator had been removed, the damaged elements were all to obvious, looking more like a sieve than a water tight radiator! The damage was not repairable, so the radiator needed a new core.

The radiator coud now be inspected once out of the confines of the loco frame.

A few small pieces of thin steel strip were soldered into place over the holes, then metal filler was used to cover the affected area, then sanded down.

Once the fuel tank was removed, cleaned up, and the inside derusted by adding a handful of nuts and bolts and rotating, the corrosion on the inside was seen to have eaten right through one corner, requiring patching before use.

The next step was to remove the engine cover to get at the various parts of the engine.

The fuel line was twisted round and the injector taken out and pointed outwards to assesss if any fuel was coming out of the injector when the engine was turned over.

When the side engine cover on the Diema was removed to work out why the pump was not delivering fuel, the eccentric was visible that should push on the pump arm to deliver the fuel to the injector.

The Diema was brought out of the shed to start work on.

The W&R was pictured shunting a few skips prior to a trip up the line.

The tool van was starting to look the part with the roof being fitted, the hemp sheet was stretched over top with a mix of PVA glue and water. It was then sealed before painting with more PVA.

No.10 at the back of the stables.

The yearly service of the W&R required the removal of the battery box to get at the worm boxes and other oil/grease points.

The Clayton arriving back with rubbish for burning.

The Clayton travelling down the newest stretch of line into the second field to clear rubbish after some of the hedges had been trimmed back.

Paddock fencing maintenance duties.

Both battery locos posing by the loco sheds.

One of the first trips out with the Clayton loco after the batteries had been fully charged.

Once some charge had been pushed into the batteries of the Clayton, a new 80v charger was purchased and for the first time in a number of years the battery box was fully charged and the Clatyon loco moved under it's own power.

The cut timber is then stacked up for the forthcoming winter.

A relatively light load even for the Spoorijzer.

The Spoorijzer ticking over by the timber pile, waiting to pull the loaded wagons down to the garden.

On another day, some of the timber had been chainsawed up and was loaded onto flat wagons, ready for stacking.

With timber sawn up into reasonable sized pieces to manhandle onto wagons, the Spoorijzer was used to transport it down to the wood pile.

Looking a bit lost in the weeds and undergrowth of summer the W&R inches it's way past the empty part of the of the of the muck heap.

At this point the rest of the field had been paritioned off for the horses.

Moës No.12 was in use for the never endng task of fence maintenance.

The Moës heads past the stables to pick up fencing for more repairs.

Clearing out the final part of the muck heap.

Parked up before filling the skips once again from what remained of the muck heap.

Now warm enough to hand crank No.112, it got it's first outing since last summer.

More bags of muck come down to the driveway for the nieghbours to remove.

W&R on fence maintenance.

By courtesy of a visitor to the railway. During the NGRS visit on the 6th May, a picture taken of possibly the biggest 'passenger' train to ever run on the line!

The bricks were taken away for storage round the back of the stables.

The only other way of moving these would have been to use a wheelbarrow. It would have taken quite a few trips back and forth to move them all.

A number of bricks had been dumped from a previous project, so these were loaded up for moving elsewhere.

A project quietly progressing in the background was the build of the tool van, now with much of the ironwork in place and the doors coming along nicely.

Bringing down the bags of muck for a large order.

After filling more bags of muck, No12 was just about ready to head back.

Coming up from the driveway with some flat wagons, ready to head out past the cherry trees to the muck heap again.

After removing the battery box it was shunted out with the W&R so the other battery box could then be swapped over.

To take off the battery boxes the locos have to be placed under the hoist. Here the Clayton has just had the box taken off.

More springtime hard work in filling the bags of muck by hand.

Heading out past the stables to fill another large order of bagged compost.

In March 2017 No.10 shunts some skips around the wagon sheds.

Once some of the cutting had been done, the timber was of a reasonable size to load onto the flat wagons.

Partway through sawing up the remains of a bough of a tree at the edge of the fields. This had come down and partly blocked the line.

when the plate had been taken off the side of the Diema motor, the trigger arm that is pushed up and down by the eccentric had clearly become twisted over time, possibly accounting for the lack of fuel to the injector.

Both battery locos outside the loco shed.

The large load of feed parking up by the stables for unloading and stacking in the hay barn.

The W&R gently eases through the gate with a large load of feed for the stables.

The W&R in use in January for some clearing out of the muck heap.

The basic timber framework for the tool van was progressing well, with the wood receiving it's first coat of primer.