 Hello, thank you for joining me. I'm in a residential area of Northwich today. This is the beginning of another episode of Miniature Railway Britain. So in Northwich in Cheshire now, it may look like a very sort of normal housing estate until you see there's a huge viaduct crossing it. This is Northwich viaduct or also known as the Weaver viaduct as it takes the Cheshire Lions Committee Railway over the River Weaver. It has opened in 1854 I believe and it's about, what is it, 739 yards long. So it's really quite a large viaduct. I'd like to live here. It'd be quite cool. You know, it's your house. It gets you to this viaduct right in front of you. I think that's a pretty cool view to have. Just look how it completely towers above the whole estate. I think that's really cool. I really like that. It just shows, it really dwarfs the houses towering above the estate like that. So we're going to go down this footpath here. We're going to go under the viaduct and have a closer look and as I already mentioned, it takes the railway line over River Weaver. So we'll also see the River Weaver and and then we're going to head on to the Miniature Railway, but firstly we'll just have a look at this viaduct because it is amazing. I mean, look at it. I just love how it's stretched across the valley in the way it does. The place I want to show you is Hunt's Lock on the River Weaver. It's where the River Weaver navigation and the River Weaver themselves join. So we go underneath those houses there. I just noticed they're built in 1998, so the viaduct is quite a lot older, but look at the juxtaposition of modern 90s houses stroke makes the Victorian engineering. As we now go under the viaduct, we can see the River Weaver. It's just down there. So I believe this section of water we can see here is the navigations. The main River Weaver will be somewhere over there, which I'm hoping we should be able to see in a moment. I'm just going to follow this path and when we get to the locks I'll show you the locks. So I've just come up the path a little way. Still the viaduct very much dominating the background. I mean it really is kind of the main notable landmark of Norfolk, which you kind of can't miss it if you come to the town. Now we're just coming to Hunt's Lock and there's something rather unusual like to show because it's not just your usual average lock. It's huge for taking pretty big vessels. Now look at the size of that. It's no small canal lock. So if we go over and of course you get a very good view of the viaduct, and look at this you could put about five canal bodies next to each other. That's how big it is. There's something here which I think is quite cool and that is more what you'd expect to see on a railway line. So with the railway in the background here we have some 74 signals. Now these were for the canal boats. There's some more at the other end. So what I assume happened was when they were, so that one there must have been for the smaller lock and that one there had been for the larger lock. So that would have been in the go position. So that would have said okay you can go in. Although as we can see the gates are currently closed and this one, the other 74 signal seems to have lost its arm. There are some at the other end so if we show what we'll do is we will walk along up here and we're going to have a look at the other end and just one more time isn't it amazing how much the viaduct dominates the sea. It's very impressive. I think actually while we're here if you have a look you can see the girder arch here. So that's the river weaver navigation. I assume the other one is the main river weaver but we'll go over there in a minute and have a look. So we're divided up behind us. We're now walking through the middle of the two locks. There's the larger one. Even this one is you know compared to your average canal lock it's still quite large. So I'm effectively on an island I'm surrounded by water doing my practices is over the the gates of the locks and what we're going to do now is have a look up this end because there's some more 74 signals and again one's in the go position and the other is in the stop position. So I think that's really cool that canals had 74 signals. I think there's one case I know of where a road had them that was in Worcester. There was a railway level crossing and there were 74 signals for the traffic not for the trains so the traffic to stop. Yeah look at that 74 signals and the north which viaduct is in the background and then looking that way we can see up the river weaver and you can just see where the other course goes so we'll go and have a look at that in a minute. So let's go and have a look at the main river weaver and again at least 74 signals are great I think. I'll just show you while we're here this is like there's been a weight on here you know it's not going to move it's seized but the weight as you can see on this one is tied to the arm of the signal so it's like counterweight it's a fail safe method so should the wire break then the weight would put the signal at danger so there's no chance of train passing signal at danger. So I'm now taking you over the gates of the smaller lock and again with a fantastic view of the aqueduct sorry not aqueduct viaduct go and do aqueducts another day. I've done aqueduct videos in the past have a look I did one at Chirk aqueduct that was quite an exciting day out. Now then we're going to leave the main or the river weaver and other gates and go up this path here and it already looks quite exciting I can see ahead where we're going to cross the actual original course of the river weaver looks like this is going to be possibly a suspension bridge so I always enjoy the good bridge you know rather than just your normal straight across sort of thing something I've made it a bit more exciting so yeah it's a suspension bridge in front of us I'll take you over that and have a look at the other river weaver and then the plan is we're going to head off to the miniature railway because that's a miniature railway video I do sometimes like to show you some local areas so here we are it looks like it swings as well yeah it's a swinging suspension bridge so look here the bridge would turn like that so you can see the workings there so they would actually have boats coming up this section of the river weaver so the whole bridge would swing so it would swing like that and it would rest just there and then a boat would be able to pass through so even more exciting so um yeah I'm really impressed with this so far I'm enjoying Northwich before we get another view yeah and there's a view of almost yeah there we are of the fire duct so let's go and have a look at the main river weaver and again at least seven four signals are great I think and I'll just show you while we're here this is like there's been a weight on here you know it's not going to move it's seized but the weight that you can see on this one is tied to the arm under signal so it's like counterweight it's a fail safe method so should the wire break then the weight would put the signal at danger so there's no chance of train passing signal danger so I'm now taking you over the gates of the smaller lock and again with a fantastic view of the aqueduct sorry not aqueduct viaducts going to do an aqueduct another day I've done aqueduct videos in the past have a look I did one at Cherk Aqueduct that was quite an exciting day out now then we're going to leave the main or the river weaver navigation go up this half here and it already looks quite exciting I can see ahead where we're going to cross the actual original course of the river weaver looks like it's going to be possibly a suspension bridge so um I always enjoy at the good bridge you know rather than just your normal straight across sort of thing something I never made it a bit more exciting so yeah it's a suspension bridge in front of this I'll take you over that let me have a look at the river weaver and then the plan is we're going to head off to the miniature railway because that's a miniature railway video I do someone's like to show you some local areas so here we are it looks like it swings as well yeah it's a swinging um suspension bridge so here the bridge would turn like that so you can see the workings there so they would actually have uh boats coming up this section of the river weaver so the whole bridge would swing so it would swing like that and it would rest just there and then a boat would be able to pass through so even more exciting so um yeah I'm really impressed with this so far I'm enjoying north which before we get another view yeah and there's a view of almost get there we are of the fire duct so we've come up the path a little way from the suspension bridge which was just around the corner up there here we are back at the viaduct you can just see how enormous it is so you've got a sort of traditional viaduct then you've got the girder over the navigation then another arch then you've got another girder over the main river weaver if you look there there's a gantry that goes down into one of the boat yards now what we're going to do we're now going to walk back underneath the viaduct and um we're going to have a look at a couple of other things so we're going sort of through the trees here because it stretches um as far as I can see when you can't receive much because of the trees but it stretches quite a long way that way as well so it's a pretty amazing structure but you might be able to hear a kind of a roaring sort of water noise now sometimes I'm thinking is that possibly a train going over but no it's not there is just here you can see there that's like that's the top of a weir and it looked like you could once walk over it but we can't do that as you can see it's all fenced off but there is a rather large weir I appreciate at the moment you can't see much the palisthenics blocking the view so I'm taking down this really narrow footpath and when we get up here a bit we will find somewhere I think just here where I can show you the weir properly and look at that there's all sorts of stray coming off it it's a really quiet and exciting sight and the water is really roaring through and look how they can open and close those gates as they need to and the water is jumping up as it crashes through they've got the actled up above it and then you've got a walking viaduct over it which I was hoping to tell you on but obviously we can't so plan is now we're going to continue up this very narrow path and what I've had planned to do was go to Norfolk station catch the train to Cuddington over this viaduct and then um we're going to walk to the railway from there but there's had a look at the Sunday timetable there's not that many trains so plan B and that is to walk all the way down this alleyway to Waitrose but this is a rather interesting approach to a Waitrose it's one of those ones where you can actually park your boat almost as close you can park your car and look at this they've kind of made these um this this isn't the miniature rail I promise um we'll get into but these are the effects of its type of trains it's for like launching a boat down into the water obviously these are modern replicas for the themed area so with now this isn't Waitrose that's a posh restaurant Waitrose to the other side it's really nice so this marine it's not quite like Chester Waitrose um where I joked that you could um you could it wasn't a joke it was quite funny you could get a canal bar just closer than you could your car um so this is the car park and um here's Waitrose so I'm going to go and get a coffee then we're going to head to the miniature railway so I've got my coffee now let's go to the miniature railway in my larder so we're now going to go from Waitrose at Norwich to the mid-chesher society of model engineers railway over in Cuddenton on the way to the railway now we're in my car driving along the a54 and it should be somewhere up here on my left is that a place called Blackmere Craft Village so that'll probably also be quite interesting as well as the railway itself so I'm looking forward to this had a enjoyed the morning looking around Norwich in the viaduct etc and the river weaver navigation oh yeah I can see obviously you can't I'm looking ahead I can see this side says Blackmere Craft Village and um it is yeah just the heads on and turning we're going to find so here we are it says beautiful unique discover a different way to shop play eat and relax so sounds very good it's very pleasant as well so we've arrived at Blackmere Craft Village in my larder we're going to find a miniature railway now and that's quite a big looking place it's well to be honest I didn't really imagine anything I just thought right let's go to that miniature today it's huge there's so many different sort of units and everything from I couldn't see it says there's a falconry bird of prey center you go from one like that let's bring her here won't they and there's other things so in a sort of place you could come and quite easily spend a day and you know have um have a good day out here rather than just come on a january afternoon like I have so admittedly I don't even know if the miniature railways this way I just sort of felt drawn to go this way see if these signs here make sense oh look at that m c s m e midge chestnut as item all engineers train rides today so we know we're going in in the right direction there's a top car park um so it must be up here somewhere it must be I imagine it to be the other side of these buildings it's quite fun when you're sort of looking for a miniature railway you don't really know exactly where you're going but you know you know it's going to be worth looking for vintage and collectibles important that sounds interesting and we'll have a look at that afterwards if I have a chance because as I said obviously the main reason I've come up here is for the miniature railway but going around here must be around here somewhere there's a tea room through there might get a cup of tea there afterwards so I mean it really is a whole village it's not just like it has it in the name it really seems like there's a lot of different things to see that's for a railway still not entirely sure must be over here somewhere another tea room oh yeah I can see the words steam rail that's how it looks like fine we found it I've got the parks up here actually there's two car parks there's a lower one right there's a top one so um I think we are here it says steam rail let's have a look here in front of us it's quite impressive the loco there let's just go around now I can see a huge turn table so I've never been to this railroad before we go because we don't know where I'm going pound per ride it's got a little steam locomotive they've also got a racetrack so um yeah I think it's time I won't have my ride trip around the miniature railway now what I've realized is there's actually public footpath here the cross is the site so we're going to go and do that we're going to walk the footpath which gives us the opportunity to see some more of the track I'll tell you a bit more about it so this is the main station as you can see they are doing some work here they're putting another through line there goes the whistle for a train to go you can see they've put some points in there and they're doing some extensions so we can we're going to walk around and we're going to go and have a look at the extensions and of course because they're doing an extension it means I'm going to have to come back here at some point when the extension opens open and um have a ride so various paths around here if we follow the footpath we've got to where two of the extensions are going to kind of meet with the existing track so you would have seen as we passed on the train and it looks like we're going to the train's just gone out so we should see the train pass as well so we come up to here this is science n b where the trains so the railway line crosses and I can hear the train coming so the train is going to pass us in a minute hear the horn of the train if you look there's even an engineers train on the new line that's being built so let's just watch the train go past and I'll tell you a little bit more so as you can see the train has gone down there and if you look that way you can see where the train has come from what's actually happening here is there's going to be a new line going off in that direction which we're going to go I've been given permission to walk to the new extension so we're going to go and do that in a minute and then the line the train goes on will be sluered this way and the new line will go along there and run off down there but what's going to happen first is the extension will open with the line going that way this section of track will be relayed and then eventually when they relay it like I said the track will come across here so they'll effectively be two loops so if we now cross the track out into the woods have a look at this engineers train I think it's really cool that they've got you know doing some engineering works on a sunday just like they are on the main lines today and they're also doing it here on some miniature railways so if we have a look here you can see the locomotive with the engineers train it's called Rusty so that's just seven and a quarter so yeah the track is seven and a quarter and the and five inch and they've just built this nice new viaduct here and we're going to see the train pass on the other section of tracks this is new viaduct it's currently only seven and a quarter inch haven't put the the third rail in they're going to train again we'll just see it pass now you can see the new line which is due to open fairly soon so we'll certainly come back and have a ride on that you can see the new line and see how there's three rails but the third one runs out there they haven't yet laid the third rail over the bridge so I'm really looking forward to coming back having a trip over the bridge so we're now going to head off up here so you can see where the extension is due to go so you'll get two loops so while we're here let's just have a quick look there's also a race track which isn't running today here deep in the woods we find a race track and it's a railway so I'll have to come and have a ride on this one day and if you look over you can just see the station over there there is like a third platform if you were to get on and off the race track railway right let's go walk the track bed of the extension slightly opposite to what we sometimes do we sometimes walk disused railways which is you know quite fun looking at where the track was and trying to imagine how it once looked like well today we're walking along a track bed of where railway will go and we can imagine what it will look like you can imagine the little track running along here and the little train you know taking visitors for a nice ride through the woods it's going to really make this railway a lot longer you know more than twice the length I'd say you know we're looking up to three or four times the length so it's going to be you know it's going to be a good really nice railway I mean already is a nice railway here in the woods but it's going to get a really long ride so definitely as I say we will be back to do that and also that the public footpath there's another one running that way so there'll be quite a lot of places where you know you'll be able to see the train from I'm going to carry on walking the extension and I'll show you the other end when I get round there so we are now coming to near the end of the extension you may have just heard a whistle from the railway station so you can see we're almost about to start at this section here they've actually had to build a bit of an embankment now if we look over here well firstly we're probably about to see a train gets to here building a bridge for the new extension carry over this this some depression around if you look at the existing bridge which we went over on the train about to see a train pass over it the new bridge they're building you know it's quite a deep deep down inside the cut and it goes over so I look forward to that being finished and having a trip on that now here this is the bridge that we traveled over one thing I quite like is the bridge on the racetrack miniature railway which is just across here you can see the racetrack how they've effectively done what looks a bit like 1960s brutalist style bridge but it obviously isn't 1960s because this railway is fairly new but the other thing I think is really nice is how um so that's run by the mid chest year modelling near such it's called the sandway and it's a railway so they've put the initials in um in a mopedic form which I think you know is a really nice touch so soon there'll be three bridges here in the road this one this one and the one they're building over there I'm now going to walk back to the railway station and it's nearly time for me to jump back into the other and drive home just show you a couple more things they've got quite an impressive large road here engine sheds in there I think we're about to hear and hear the train pass again so that pretty much concludes my afternoon at the mid chest year model engineering society's nature rail I've really enjoyed it and if you're ever in the area you know do come and visit not only the railway but the whole of the blackmere craft village you could easily spend a day here so that there really is a lot to see so yeah do come visit them so from the sandway miniature railway thank you very much for watching please do feel free to like subscribe comment tell your friends both about henry's adventures and the sandway miniature railway thank you very much for watching and goodbye