A Day on the Middy

With the mainline becoming a green tunnel or infested with the dreaded palisade fencing I've been more interested in some of our more obscure preserved railways for some time now and took the opportunity to attend a charter at the Mid Suffolk Railway. There isn't a great deal there but what there is is very interesting and enabled us to get some unusual shots of rural railway operation.
The original Middy was built under the 1896 Light Railway Act, starting at a Junction with the Norwich Main Line at Haughley with grand designs of connecting with the East Suffolk Line at Saxmundham and becoming an alternative route to Yarmouth. Needless to say the money ran out and they got no further than a field near Laxfield and the company was insolvent from day 1 but somehow the line survived being taken over by the LNER at the grouping and Nationalisation finally closing in 1952.
The new Middy is built on the trackbed at Brockford and uses the orginal station building but not quite on the original site. The original building at Laxfield also survives at the Mangapps Farm Railway.
















The last shot is reminiscent of a well known picture of the crew posing beside a Y7 on the North Sunderland Railway at Seahouses

 

A nice set John but I'm not sure the re-enactors will meet with the approval of Mr. Hitch.
The horse shot would have been more interesting if the nag had been one that didn't like to be boxed and had been bucking a rearing in protest.

 

Excellent pics...thanks for sharing them

 

I see services have been accelerated since my visit - the sign says to proceed at walking pace

 

The animal rights people would have been on our backs! For the record the cat in the basket isn't real and no animals were harmed it the running of this charter.

 

These certainly look like an excellent re-creation of a 'light railway'