Happy New Year!

A happy new year to all visitors! At the start of 2017 the Birches Green Light Railway did not exist so its been a busy time since the start of the project in the Spring. A lot of work has been done but a lot remains to be done.

The major focus in the new year is likely to be the tramway high level extension. The aim will also be to complete the scenery in 2018, especially the goods yard. Once all of the scenery has been done then we'll begin to refine what has been done already. This blog will follow all the developments of course.

Van train

Falcon with a van train.

Loco Profile #7 : V13 Ruby

V13 Ruby is another small shunter, helping with pilot duties at Maüsestadt station as well as trip workings and local passenger services.

Ruby in action

Ruby with a freight service.

Engineering train

The Yellow Peril keeping the line in top shape.

The arrival of Ruby

The Birches Green Light Railway is proud to announce the arrival of its latest locomotive, V13 Ruby. Ruby is a small shunter though will also find use on trip freights and local passenger services. Its all change around for the BGLR as Falcon has returned from the reserve fleet replacing Jam in the ready fleet. Maria unfortunately continues to have serious problems with its motor and is unlikely to return to service any time soon.

Final Jam

0199 Jam's final duty before going into reserve was this freight train.

Tram test

Full tram operations will require the laying of a proper line of course but the tram was given a brief test atop the bridge (where the terminus tram stop will eventually be).

Arrival of the tram

The Birches Green Light Railway intends to open a tram service at a later date and ready for that (which will probably have its terminus atop the bridge near the station) a tram has arrived.

Operational update

The working fleet all had a run out today. W5 Maria is still out of action which means the fleet is a bit short though Falcon will not be bought back into service early. The BGLR have revealed that a new locomotive will be arriving at the railway at Christmas!

The following photos were taken of today's operations. Percy took one of the freight trains, Jam the push-pull service, Growler ran light engine to allow a change around and the Trolley did some line checks.

Loco Profile #6 : Motorbahnwagen

A recent addition to the BGLR fleet is the Motorbahnwagen engineering trolly. This handles engineering trains on the line.

Loco Profile #5 : W5 Maria

W5 Maria is the sister locomotive of Percy. Unfortunately Maria picked up a running fauly thought to be with it's motor. The problem did seem to have fixed itself but Maria failed while hauling a passenger train and is now withdrawn pending attention.

Loco Profile #4 : D13 Growler

D13 Growler is the sister locomotive of Falcon. It runs well though does make a lot more noise than Falcon hence its name! At the moment Growler is the main locomotive on the line.

Loco Profile #3 : 1099 Jam

1099.013-3 (though the BGLR tends to just refer to it as 1099) Jam is a C-C electric locomotive. Jam is a good performer and can handle any train on the railway.

Jam has now entered storage at the start of 2018 as part of the BGLR's rotation policy though will return later in the year!

Loco Profile #2 : W2 Percy

Percy is an 0-4-0 shunter but is capable of hauling most trains on the BGLR and often takes secondary passenger trains and trip freights along the line.

Percy arrived in the Summer of 2017 and has quickly established itself as one of the railway's most useful locomotives.

Loco Profile #1 : D16 Falcon

D16 Falcon is the flagship of the Birches Green Light Railway. It was the first locomotive to arrive at the BGLR and has always been the locomotive chosen to test new lines and launch special events.

Falcon is a B-B diesel hydraulic and can handle any train on the BGLR from express passenger to heavy freights. Falcon runs very smoothly though did have some problems with its lights which required attention in the Summer of 2017.

Falcon was out of service in the second half of 2017 as part of BGLR's rotation policy but has now returned.

Welcome to the Birches Green Light Railway

Welcome to the website of the BGLR (Birches Green Light Railway), an imaginary railway company operating somewhere. Find out about our locos, the development of our first line to Maüsestadt, and operational news.