66 Gala

Last weekend the lovely Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway held a special gala with a DB Cargo Class 66 as special guest. It was enjoyable being hauled up the line by the 66, the first time i have been on a train hauled by the freight locomotive. Also novel was the fact the train i was on and being hauled was the CPPR's 3-CEP EMU. This is a train i love (and indeed own one myself... albeit in model form!)

Galas are always fun to visit as you get these unusual combinations and also a lot more trains than on a usual service day. You can see my photos here.

Taking the CEP

The Class 411 4-CEP was one of many electric multiple units that were the backbone of British Rail services in the South until the early 2000s. I don't think i ever travelled on one, well until yesterday. A preserved set is on the Chinnor & Prince Risborough Railway and yesterday a special Blue Electric Day was held with the EMU running services up and down the small preserved line.

The EMU was hauled by a diesel locomotive of course as the line didn't have electrified third rail but that did not matter as it was great to finally see and ride on a 4-CEP which i've always had a soft spot for and indeed when i started my N gauge BR model railway layout a 4-CEP was the first model i bought! You can see my photos here.

The National Museum of Computing

Somewhere i've wanted to go for some time is The National Museum of Computing in Bletchley and today i finally went! Seeing all of the old computers, especially the "old iron" (mainframes and minicomputers), filled me with nostalgia even the stuff i hadn't ever seen before! I've always been fond of computing like this, many years ago i learnt to program on a Prime minicomputer via a dumb terminal after all! There were no Primes on display though i was told they did have one in storage.

They did have rooms full of computers and cabinets full of exhibits, happily quite a few of them i own myself too! You can see my photos here.

The Pigeon House, Monks Risborough

Monks Risborough is a lovely village in Buckinghamshire at the foot of the Chilterns that has been in existence since pre-Norman times. Not quite as old but still very interesting is a building near the church of St Dunstan (originally between the church and a farmhouse) that dates from the 16th century.

This is the Pigeon House which now stands in a recreation ground. Pigeons were bred for food in the house though later it was used by the nearby farm as a cattle shelter. One curiosity is a door on the Northern side of the house which does not match the rest of the architecture and may have been originally part of another building.

A tale of 2 Risboroughs

Yesterday i headed down to the medieval market town of Princes Risborough. Until now its only been a place i have travelled through so i thought it was high time i got off the station platform and explored the town itself. First however i did take the Aylesbury branch line train but only as far as the adjoining village of Monks Risborough and then walked back through to where i started.

Both places are idyllic and full of lovely (and no doubt expensive!) old houses - quite a few with thatched roofs with the Chiltern hills as a backdrop. You can see the photos i took here.

Walking the Aylesbury Arm

Its been ages since i last visited a new (to me) stretch of canal, in fact we need to go back all the way to last November and my visit to the Nottingham Canal. On Saturday however i visited Aylesbury for the first time and walked a good stretch of the Aylesbury Arm of the mighty Grand Union Canal.

A very nice stretch of canal it is too, very soon you are out of the town and into lovely countryside. Then you can have the somewhat surreal experience of being stared at by an entire herd of cows. You can see my photos here.

Rails to Aylesbury

Its always nice to go somewhere new and today it was Aylesbury, partly for a canal walk (of which more another time), partly to visit the county town of Buckinghamshire which is where my ancestral roots run deep (traced back to 1653CE or so) and also partly for the rail travel. I was not disappointed on the latter, starting with a class 68 light engine at Birmingham Snow Hill, a class 121 "Bubble Car" at Aylesbury, some good views of the maintenance depot and a nice trip along the sleepy branch line between Princes Risborough and Aylesbury. You can see my photos here.