 Hello, thank you for joining me. I'm in Harlington today in Greater London I've come here to go and visit Harlington Locomotive Society for their mince pie run So it's another episode of Metro Britain. I'm just walking through the churchyard at the moment It's apart from the you may be able to hear the sound the M4 It's a nice reminder of how rural Middlesex would have been You go down this tunnel of the U-trees I'm gonna walk past the church walk along the road until I get to the railway. This is quite nice With the exception of the Denno bit not being any lights, which I wouldn't expect it does feel quite Christmassy already. So we'll walk past the church walk along roads to where the minute to railway is and We'll have a ride behind whatever they're running have some mince pies and just have a nice afternoon. It's very cold It was about minus five this morning. It's the parish church So it's a nice cold day some shorter. They're running steam the steam engine should look quite nice Lots of steamy effects in this cold weather This is the churchyard I'm gonna walk past the parish church. I do like it when you get to parts of London that Still have a bit of a rural feel As I say, it's a nice reminder of how rural Middlesex would have been Coming out here onto the road. It's a little lane here This lane would have probably gone all the way up to Hayes So the railway station at Harlington for Harlington is Hayes and Harlington on the Great Western Mainline now served by Crossrail the Elizabeth line So that would have been the lane up that way, but that's been cut in half by the M4 It's nice for you there at the church So I'm just gonna walk along here. The new road Comes down over there and the locomotive society is just up here So if you were to come here, you could come here by train and by bus That bus there that's going to Norfolk station So there is different ways you get central line to Norfolk and get that bus Or you could come on the Great Western Mainline to stroke Crossrail the Elizabeth line To get here. Right, so we come again fields and everything feels very rural. We're very close to Heathrow Airport I can't hear much aviation activity, but Only about a mile that way is one of the runways that Heathrow Airport So it gives you an idea of where we are Right, so we're gonna cross the road now and It's just a little way up here and we'll get to So we come along here sometimes I have been here before You see horses in this field, which is is usually quite nice I do like being out on a nice frosty morning. It's just very Down here you sort of sign now coming into Harlington Village And this is where the railway is so I'm gonna keep walking that way when I find a road So just come a little way down the road and we are here There we go. Look Harlington locomotive society and I can see Bounds of steam so they're obviously running steam, which is nice So here we go This is their car park I think Hold on for a minute there because it's a cold day. There's not that many people here which is Shouldn't have to wait long to get right. So here we are. This is Harlington locomotive society Clubhouse there so There's a 10 of 4 signal. So we have to go over a bridge because it's been a race track. It's like a fence We need to go up and over the railway line Which is makes it interesting. So I wonder if we wait here. We wait here. We should see a train come along but it sounds like They're steaming up a loco Down there. It's used to be an orchard. This club has been here since 1947 Not always be on this site, but the club has existed since 1947 So it's quite an old club in a long time. That's the clubhouse where I've been told they do a mince price I'm just sort of looking over there trying to see if there's a train. I thought I might have seen a train leave so Yeah, sounds like a train come and let's watch. I'm no idea what we're gonna see but train is about to come around the corner So let's see what it is little class 20 So you get on at the station a coming a loop around here and then the railway line runs along the edge of this fence and it goes off Over there. So let's have a look over here. There's the steaming base. There's a little great Western panier tank there been steamed up Cobos loco A couple of great Western prairie tank engines They're gonna be steamed up later on and then that's the station is another cobo locale way to me. That's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna go and have a ride You're going When you go down there, it feels like you've really gone away from says no Personages or no person's allowed to be on this point the railways very kindly giving me permission to take you down there And what we'll do I'll walk down and do a bit like so. We're just walking off into the platform not something I'd normally do and we walk down here and it's Sort of in like between two railway lines I think the steam locomotor might be coming up the hill one thing let's wait here Let's wait for the steam engine to go fast and then we'll walk on down So taste of what's come to make some really nice steamy effects Look how the steam just sort of lingers one in this cold weather. I'm not sure what the exact temperature must be about Really at least freezing or maybe minus one minus two Very nice crisp winters day. So I'm literally walking down I told you cause the middle of a double track section. It is basically a circuit Train coming. No, I want to kind of although. This is a safe walking route I kind of want to be out of here before the next train comes along and Just seems better that way so we get to here. Yeah, it sounds like diesel and There's a train coming down the hill now So this is the section where the two sort of lines part companies. That's the Cobo So that will go by and then it'll soon appear on this So there goes to someone say Merry Christmas So there goes the Cobo. So that will go round the back through the tunnel and come up here There is also a gauge one layout and that's Not part of what the public kind of see that the club members run that at a different time It's really cool. Let's just go past here because of the cold winters effects. Look at that signal See how see the cobwebs on it. It just looks I'll just see the train go by It's quite nice having a little train go past you and have it out Merry Christmas at you Yeah, this is what I'm saying. Look at that. It just looks so It's also nice. It's a fully signalled line. So the thing so basically So that's showing yellow but once trains past it shows red So trains, you know, they can't catch each other up because they're just following each other rounds. We go here So say that's a gauge one loud bridge That's to get you into the gauge one. See all the cobwebs on it And then just round here, there's another there's their tunnel. We'll walk up to it We're not gonna walk through the tunnel walk up to here see that signal there I think that must be off a railway line from somewhere on the gauge line and that will change When it's green at the moment because the section ahead someone's just there behind Winnie the Pooh section ahead is Free empty no training it once a train passes Then that will go red because if there was another train coming along then it would You know stop there and we've also come slightly downhill. So down here We're down at the bottom of the hill the stations up at the top So as we saw the steam engine work up the hill we'll see a bit more that the steam engine Well audience have to work to get up the hill Yeah steam engine so we'll watch steam engine go by now do some line siding See how the light has now gone red and you may have noticed the steam engine wasn't making much smoke There's a bit of steam. That's because it's downhill all the way So what happened is that will go green once the steam engine just over there now Starting to work Because drivers go open her up to climb the hill and then once she gets past this probably the next signal It should go green about now. I would have thought Maybe not just yet, but I'm looking the other way at where there we go So and the steam engine we turn around just see she's climbing the hill So that's like one section all the way around today. Anyway, I'm gonna hang around down here And we're gonna do some line siding and we'll see the steam engine a few others climbing the hills As we see the steam engine coming up the bank for the final time today. I've had a good afternoon here really enjoyed it It's very kind of them and let me go lie inside that what we did down there where we saw train from a few different angles It's now time for me to go It's getting towards dusk when they said they'd stop running so I'm gonna do walk through the orchard over the bridge and back Into the normal world as it is it's like you come over here over that bridge And you're just in this nice little world of just apple trees Minutes of trains had a nice in there and that building there's even had a couple of nice cups of teas and mince pies It's been fun riding. So we're seeing the boat the Kobo as a point out at the beginning the prairie And that's just the out today, but maybe another time. And then of course, there's the panic tank Which we had arrived behind earlier on so I Think that's pretty much finished for today. We'll be going on to shed Another one of their signals, which we explained earlier that bit of track That's an interesting one because that's like the one if you look it goes to Go to a little turntable there and then that's you see as a barrier. So that's like that way of getting love coasts in and out the site Celebrated its 70 years in 2017. So, you know, it's been here for 75 years. It's been a trip our way Now I'm gonna find our way as I said up over that bridge and back into the, you know, the real world It's it's been a really exciting Afternoon here. So as I said, it's quite easy to get to buses literally go right past the site So if you'd like to come and visit then do have a look see when they're running and Come here and have a nice afternoon like I did if you don't come up Christmas You may not get mince pies, but no doubt you pretty get cakes with your tea in there. This will tea room Always like how here as I said, it's just the world of all the normal houses over there in here You've got this little world of little trains. It's it's great fun So Thank you very much for watching. Please do feel free to like subscribe and comment and from Harlington locomotive society Goodbye