The DFR became part of the Great Western empire and this GWR 2-6-2 Prairie tank, built in 1928, is presently a mainstay of the line. The tank is leaving Parkend with the last train of the day.

Any guesses? This wheelset was parked outside in the Parkend sunshine. It is probably from an inside two cylinder locomotive. Note the internal driving and control gear arrangements, with appropriate counterweights. The two driving arrangements convert the reciprocating motion of the pistons, via connecting rods, to the rotary motion of the wheels. All in all, a nice little exercise in 3D-mechanics to minimise out-of-balance forces! Oh what fun the designers of steam engines used to have! On the outside of the left hand wheel you can also see the massive outside "pin" for the one or two coupling rods to transmit the power to the other, typically one or two other "driving" axles. In short, this is probably part of an 0-6-0! So there!




The station staff have arrived, and while they are opening up the ticket office, I have a look around the memorabilia gracing the diminutive waiting room and booking hall. Here, for example, is a map from 1917 of the Forest of Dean Railways. On this map there are lots interesting bits and pieces; note, for example, to the east of Lydney, the old Severn Railway Bridge linking England and Wales. The Bridge survived until an accident after WWII.




The ticket office has just opened. I duly buy my ticket for the day.
Shsh! I used a debit card - no cash, no old pence, not even new pence!
With dimensions of about 2¼" by 1¼", as well as with traditional typefaces, the cardboard ticket
has a suitably traditional size and look and feel - as of course intended!




Before the train comes in, I have some more time to look around in the waiting room cum booking hall at various snippets and mementoes of the railway's history. For example, this is how the village station of Parkend looked in the years up to 1929, when the line from Lydney into the Forest closed for passenger traffic. (Excuse my unintended "selfie" in the reflection!) In more recent times, many hours of patient and painstaking volunteer labour were needed to recreate the original platform buildings in form and appearance. Just think!




Here is the result.




Some blasts of the whistle down the valley herald the arrival of the first train of the day.
It is headed by a Great Western small prairie tank of 1928 vintage - obviously overhauled and maintained over the years, including the regular seven year boiler certificate and of course, with some nice paintwork by a firm of two local guys in their early twenties.




The train steams into Parkend station ...




... and then it's the time-honoured ritual of the loco running around its train and taking on water before being coupled on to the other end of the train.




We are waiting for the whistle ...




... and then we are off through the forest on our way to Whitecroft.




Whitecroft Station has recently been reopened ...




... with a station building and platform furniture in the old style like at Parkend.




From Whitecroft it's then on through the forest ...




... to Norchard ...




... which is the present centre of operations of the DFR.




After Norchard, the next stop down the line towards the River Severn is Lydney Town.




Then the southern terminus of Lydney Junction is reached, ...




... where the loco runs around its train ...




... before setting off back into the forest,
leaving me to explore Lydney Harbour on the bank of the Severn Estuary.

This is the Inner Harbour, where pleasure boats have long ago displaced the freight vessels which used to carry the coal, iron and stone mined and quarried in the Forest off to the outside world.




From the outer Harbour, there is a distant view of Oldbury nuclear power station (operational from 1967 to 2011) and (very faintly) the two Severn road bridges.




Close by there is also a Stone Circle which appears to be
a mock Stone Circle, bereft of much history.




Here are the two Severn Bridges and Oldbury Power Station in close-up.




And here is an even closer view of the road bridges, the closer and older of which Nigel's party - including me - crossed when we came to Parkend off the M4.




Here is the Outer Lydney Harbour and looking up-river towards Gloucester.




Here is another up river view towards the Vale of Berkeley on the south side of the estuary. Berkeley nuclear power station (operational from 1962 to 1989) is out there somewhere there as well. This seems to be nuclear power station country, what with Hinkley Point around the corner in Somerset!

Here is a Lydney Junction station name board
in Severn and Wye Joint Railway style ...




... while here, we have the GWR style.




My train cometh ...




... and I'm on it, progressing between Norchard and Lydney.




This is just north of Norchard - going round the bend from Whitecroft!




At Parkend, the engine runs round the train.




Steady now ...




... as she slowly approaches the other end of the carriages.
Don't want to give the passengers a sharp jolt!




The force to drive the train - of perhaps 200 to 300 tons weight - is shared between the two cylinders and is transmitted from the piston in each cylinder via a slide arrangement and connecting rod
to the appropriate side of the driving wheels.




It's the last train of the day to Norchard ...




... and the train "sails into the sunset".
An interesting day!

The "Fountain Inn" basks in the evening sun.
The shadows indicate - almost in sun-dial fashion - the time of day.




The last train passengers have departed. The next train will be in three days' time.




Station adverts give that feeling of another age.
That's what they are indeed meant to do!




Railways in the Forest of Dean had a complex and colourful history. It was originally all about getting access to the abundance of natural resources hidden away in the forest.




It's evening. Tourists have departed. The slow pace of rural existence returns.




A last look at the railway station in its arboreal context ...




... and soon night is upon us.