A Mouth Piece

Our newly weathered Class 50 (50020 "Revenge") looks somewhat dwarfed by the surrounding landscape as it emerges from the tunnel on the approach to Saggy Bottom Halt.

Yes, I know, this is yet another look at this section of the layout but, I promise, it will be the last for a while. 

However, I did want to show the cave entrance (at bottom right) which is situated at the end of a footpath leading from Saggy Bottom Halt. This cave has not been included in any of the previous pictures that I have posted of the branch line and I thought it might make an interesting photograph when shown with the two tunnel mouths.

Where the cave goes and what might lurk within is really anybody's guess but, if there is a monster hidden in its darkest recesses, it is most probably going to be an eight-legged creature. This is because, at the weekend, we spotted a small cobweb near the cave entrance. No doubt it is only a small spider but, for anyone who is just 24 mm tall, even that would be a giant. 

Be afraid, be very afraid!

At top right of the photo you can see the Hornby Operating Tipper which feeds, just out of shot, the Operating Conveyor Belt. These are situated at the head of a short spur off the main line and are in, what will be, a small coal yard. This area is still being landscaped but will doubtless feature in a future posting.

As for the Class 50, the wholly single track branch line will definitely not be its normal stamping ground since this will be operated by the Class 121 on a "Single Engine In Steam" basis. I just thought that it would be useful to include a loco in the photograph to give the scene a sense of scale and "Revenge" just happened to be handy.

It is actually one of two locomotives that we have recently had weathered by Mikron Models of Taunton, the other being our Class 25, and I will be featuring these in future postings.