Ruislip Lido Railway | Mad Bess goes ballasting

[@musiqtee]

Volunteers & staff alike - Every operational, safety and maintenance logistics are SO incredibly professional at this railway…! As an old’ish enthusiast, I’m just in awe… 🤓

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

Thanks, we try our best!

[@PaulMeyer-m4v]

Good job Mad Bess didn't derail the ballast train or it would have to be renamed Bad Mess!!

[@JohnnyLondon-gk9gx]

this is actually clever ngl

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

That name has actually been used internally when she has misbehaved on occasion 😉

[@garycousino]

Wow just stumbled across this channel. Very classy operation. The right of way is gorgeous and looks like it has been there for a hundred years, just stunning

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

Not quite a hundred years, the railway has been in operation in some form since the 40’s and as a Society we have run it since 1979.

[@Tuckaway]

I'm very impressed with your little ballast tipping wagons. They do a big job on a small gauge railway.

[@Pesmog]

They are of a classic design that were used in mines all over the UK back in the day, These are the nicest sets I have seen anywhere.

[@79MBO]

@@Pesmogit helps that 10 of them were delivered new only last year

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

Thanks! We had another 10 manufactured last year by Severn Lamb! They look superb!

[@berryblue5177]

I may be a 21 year old american, but seeing stuff like this, it's just amazing to see, I would happily volunteer my services to such a railway.

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

Don't forget to pop by if you are ever in London!

[@timdanter5441]

Lovely classy railway operation - just wondering where all the finance comes from to maintain the high equipment level ? On a Health & Safety note the practice of free standing on a flat car whilst the train is in motion is surely a no-no ! Either ban the practice or at least provide a chair (however temporary) to lower the individuals centre of gravity and keep him on the train in the event of braking/acceleration jolts -it's not meant to be a fairground ride ! Nonetheless, you still have a great little railway !!

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

We are proud that the railway is operated entirely by our dedicated group of volunteers. We don't receive any external regular funding, the operation is self financing from revenues collected from our Train Tickets, Special Events, Gift Shop and Tearoom.

[@kevinbargery2261]

This is brilliant. I used to come here a lot as a kid and 40 odd years ago me and a mate got a tour of the sheds. His uncle was a volunteer at the time. I've moved away now but occasionally visit the Water's Edge will have to have a ride some time! Keep up the good work👍

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

Thanks Kevin! Hope to see you soon.

[@jacquesb5248]

it's a real railroad but smaller! love it

[@zapfanzapfan]

You seem to know what you are doing, maybe you should be building HS2. Impressive work !

[@neville132bbk]

LeviNZ,,, ex Waitara Rly Pres. Soc (NZ) 2004-14 has viewed and approved this video for purposes of encouragement and congratulation :-). Old railwaymen never die, they only lose their way.

[@Mercmad]

I was a third generation NZR railway man. Both grandfathers, several uncles and a few cousins were all employed by the NZR.

[@SomeThrillingHeroics]

20:00 As much as I don't want to be "some jerk on the internet who thinks he knows best", I'm somewhat concerned by what I see here and feel I need to bring it up. Admitting trains into a passing loop from both ends at once has the risk that in the event of driver error, brake failure or similar, one train will collide into the side of the other, almost certainly causing a derailment (and potentially striking a passenger carriage from a direction that offers little protection to the occupants). The normal practice I have seen on other UK railways is to hold one train outside the loop and only admit it once the first is fully stationary. In the event of an emergency, this then gives slightly longer for the train to stop (hopefully avoiding harm entirely) and, should a collision occur anyway, ensures there is less kinetic energy involved (as only one train is moving).

[@Andrew-xg5ge]

I too was surprised to see 2 trains entering the loop at Haste Hill, both at the same time. I just hope this was a once-off incident...

[@davethatcher4954]

As an ex signalman on B R back in the day , that caught my eye as well. At best I would expect some run off points in case of overruns.

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

The method adopted here is fully approved for our operations and risk assessed, run off distance is provided for a train which is only going at 5mph. Appreciate the feedback on the BR days, but thankfully we aren't living in those days or indeed a BR railway. Safety is a balance of risk (likelihood and severity) with mitigations to provide a latent risk profile. You can't compare our railway at a maximum speed of 8mph with processes and procedures adopted for railways which run at 125mph...

[@andrewmiller9654]

Super video Murray, and everyone else involved. We are visiting this coming Sunday to collect some sleepers ❤

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

Hope you enjoyed your ride last weekend!

[@MrPeerum]

😅that brown diesellok is almost 1 replica from the Dutch NS 2200 series. the Brown baer./de bruine beer.😅how cool is that.😊NS is Nedrlandse Spoorwegen.😊

[@mysiren4457]

Also, wer sowas guckt, ist entschleunigt😊

[@tezza72uk49]

Thank you for another inspiring video, great realistic results. I would love to see a future video on weathering locos and rolling stock.

[@evanw2980]

I love the mini tamping car, everything here is brilliant and thanks for letting us all have a look!

[@utubewatcher806]

so the cars are mini; I was thinking they had giant-sized volunteers tipping over the gondolas.

[@delphjunction1168]

Absolutely love these railways. Just so relaxing to watch. Maybe not so relaxing to operate ay. As an motorman on the tubes quite a few times we had to wait for the tamping machine to clear the tracks before we could start work. Break downs etc. Thank you so much for showing us this lovely vlog. Stay safe everyone. DELPH JUNCTION (Pete)

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

Thanks Pete, it's a relaxing railway to operate - we are run entirely by volunteers and lucky enough to have over 130 active members!

[@jasonfernee6395]

Well done to all the volunteers. I didn't know about this narrow gauge railway, but I will be visiting soon.

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

Thanks Jason, hope to welcome you down soon!

[@CREPOZOIDLEMORBIDES]

BISOUS BONJOUR DE LA FRANCE BIENVENUE JADORE CONTINUER MERCI

[@peter15871]

You lad's done a great job getting the track ballasted, also glad train driver had is eye on the chap tipping the truck's in case he slipped and got his foot in between the sleeper and the moving truck. H&S would have said something..

[@H4rleyBoy]

I've watched some pretty rubbish light railway videos over the years but this wasn't one of them though.

[@andycooke9315]

Thanksfor sharing! Liked and Subbed! Cheers, Andy

[@tristanstrains]

Very nice 👍

[@kishascape]

I love LARPing.

[@1DGH]

That’s a person who knows how to use a digger for loading

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

We have a couple of very Senior Digger Operators within our volunteer team.

[@Pocketfarmer1]

Why was Mad Bess running backwards with the fully loaded cars and forward with the lights? Does she pull better in reverse?

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

She pulls the same in either direction but the reason she was working as she was that day was because for operational reasons she couldn’t run round her train each time. It was thought better to have the driver facing the wagons when propelling them so he could see the hand signals from the operative tipping the wagons as they were being unloaded and easily spot if anything went wrong while travelling to/from the worksite. This just so happened to be in the direction of the empty train going back to be loaded.

[@Pocketfarmer1]

@@RuislipLidoRailway Thanks, I knew there must have been a good reason.

[@Northerner_Transport_Hub]

oooh nice lots of BALLST

[@Cheburashka-c1h]

The place is not a patch on how nice it was back in 1961 ,when used in the film The Young Ones, staring Cliff Richard.

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

I think most would argue the railway is a big blanket comparatively to what it was in 1961! It's been expanded beyond all recognition.

[@endemarm6357]

КАКАЯ МИЛАЯ ЖЕЛЕЗНАЯ ДОРОГА . ДА ЕЩЕ И С ОТЛИЧНЫМ ФУНКЦИОНАЛОМ .👍👍👍

[@Andrew-xg5ge]

I wonder how 'Ruislip Lido Railway' translate into the Cyrillic alphabet.

[@neville132bbk]

absoliutno... soglaius"...ot Nov Zelandoi.

[@mikeevans9014]

😮😢😢

[@KeithLyons-z4h]

18.28 There's a lot of weight in those ballast wagons-Look at the way the points lever is bouncing up and down.

[@musiqtee]

As at 13:42 , the train is ‘cutting the points’, meaning going against the set direction of the mechanism. This is acceptable and normal when technical and operational guidelines permit (guessing, but Lido staff know…). In tram or light rail, spring-set permanent points are also part of the safety in normal operations, but this particular one -seems to be held by its gravity weighted handle (guessing).- (a combo…?) Maintenance services are also not ‘normal operations’, hence no tokens, and strict radio control (in general, guessing again…). [Edit: 14:56 the point in question is manually locked, local override by staff & radio protocol…] In “big rail” cutting manual points (switches) is a thing in shunting yards at low speeds, but those points are marked. On mainline or at speed, points are always ‘in control’ and interlocked. Cutting them would destroy things, and are as bad as SPADs - Job’s lost…😅

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

@@musiqtee Some points on our railway are designed to be pushed through by the passage of a train and reset to where they were previously so that a train coming from the opposite direction goes the way we want it to. At 14:56 the driver is changed point manually for the direction he requires and inserts a bolt & lynch pin into the point to stop it being thrown completely the other way but this still allows a train to push through

[@musiqtee]

@@RuislipLidoRailway Thanks! I was vaguely “right”, intended to answer the OP that ‘train weight’ didn’t rock the lever - it was merely moving it when cutting through. But, I got carried away - as I usually am… (and how I end up learning from actual insights, like you shared above…)

[@Gin-toki]

Awesome! What gauge is this railway? 1ft?

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

Yes 1ft or 12 inches as we usually say.

[@victorpaul904]

🇮🇳💐🍁🌹♥️🥰🥰👌🌹♥️🍁💐🇮🇳

[@davidhill7914]

Looking in from North Yorkshire, England. No snow her just lots of rain.

[@corwinbrelsford2626]

If I were to see the ride over as a short... I would be inclined to belive this was a G scale model! Beautiful work!

[@АлександрС-в2л4ж]

А на пассажирских вагонах есть тормоза?

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

Yes they do! In fact nearly all of our vehicles have brakes, the only few that don’t are some of our older maintenance wagons.

[@andrewrixon2347]

I remember swimming in Ruislip Lido as a kid…am now 60 !

[@FrankHeuvelman]

Ik had gisteren nog last van een ruislip.

[@V3lk0n]

Do yall have like a trolley or a snow plowing train?

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

No we don’t have anything like that as we don’t get enough snow to need one.

[@V3lk0n]

@@RuislipLidoRailway fair enough.

[@thedaddie]

What was the weight of a full train

[@brucekellett2269]

Yeah Thats a good question

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

If you are just talking about the wagons carrying the ballast, 8 of those loaded was 6 tons. Add the loco and wagon for braking and the total train weight was 11 tons

[@stefanoaccetta4231]

@thedaddie ha aperto la strada alle mie curiosità di appassionato di treni!! Provo a indovinare i pesi a vuoto dei vari rotabili o almeno circa: 200 kg i vagoni a 2 assi, 1000 kg il vagone 4 assi, 4000 kg la locomotiva 4 assi, 1500 kg (senza acqua e tender) la locomotiva a vapore. Ci sono andato vicino @ruilsliplidorailway ?

[@InverJaze]

That was fun.

[@Razer_-fe9mo]

This is awesome! 🚂 ❤

[@british.bus.spotter]

I wanna put a train on a turntable and leave the wagons off the turntable but still have it coupled and then see what happens

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

= will not end well.

[@Silvergt333]

This is so cool!

[@MrPeerum]

😅where is this railroad/country?🤔😅

[@Pesmog]

Its in the UK, on the west side of London. 👍 The railway takes visitors to one of the few inland beaches in the UK

[@MrPeerum]

@@Pesmog 😄thanks for the reactie 😂

[@Kitchevo]

Appreciate operational constraints but would love to have seen Mad Bess on all the ballast wagons loaded! Bet that would make a hell of a racket 😈

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

As the ballast wagons aren't braked we have a restriction on the number that can operate with locomotive only braking. You will see a flat wagon on the trains, this is added to provide additional braking force.

[@Kitchevo]

@@RuislipLidoRailway oh I knew there would be a common sense reason why, just saying it would be nice lol

[@RobertP-zk8vh]

is this a for profit line?

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

The railway makes a profit but we have a 100% volunteer staff so all proceeds go back into making the railway even better

[@gainsbourg66]

Nice filming - but what awful station signs.

[@RuislipLidoRailway]

Sorry you don't like them - we do 🤣

[@fabrizioviscardi40]

Great channel, I sub to it, cheers Fabrizio - like 734

[@fabrizioviscardi3209]

Thanks for sharing!

[@heli-crewhgs5285]

Is this the same railway that the Japanese forced British prisoners of war to build, during World War 2?

[@johnm2012]

No.