Friday 30 March 2012

The Hope in Carshalton

Thursday 29th March.

This was the Weekly Wind Up venue, and luckily for me, the first day of their London beer festival. It was also my first visit to the pub as well. Here's what I wrote on facebook when I got home:

had a great evening at the Hope in Carshalton. My first visit here tonight and some wonderful special one off beers. Redemption's Port & Brandy porter - smooth and rich and great flavours, think this is the first time I've had a beer with brandy added. Brodies dry hopped Old Street Pale was full of simcoe and citra hops on aroma taste, simply devine. Brodies London Lager was full of wonderful Simcoe and Centennial Hops, only 'lagered' for 4 weeks but would love try this again after it has matured some more. Finally East London - Pale dry hopped with citra hops, first beer tried and more hoppy flavours. Well done all.

The beer list is shown below:

Beer List - Stillage

Brodies: London (cask obviously) Lager 4.5%
Brodies: Old Street Pale 5%
By The Horns: Lambeth Porter 5.1%
By The Horns: Diamond Geezer (Fest Special) 6.1% (not ready on thursday)
East London: Pale (special Citra dry hopped version) 3.8%
Ha'penny: London Stone Bitter 4.5%
London Fields: Hackney Hopster 4.5%
Moncada: Bitter 4.3%
Moncada: Blonde 4.2%
Redemption: Little Chief (Fest Special) 4.3%
Redemption: Port & Brandy Porter (Fest Special) 5.8%
Twickenham: Black Eel 5.5%
On the Bar:

Windsor & Eton/Brodies Collaboration: Summer Saison 8%
In the Marquee 6pm - 11pm (or when it's gone) Thursday only
Brodies: Brainwave Pale 4% - Brodies profits to Brainwave charity.

Redemption: Trinity ( Special Simcoe & Stella dry hopped ) 3%

It has also just been voted the local CAMRA pub of the year.

And now the photos:









Wednesday 28 March 2012

Watercress Line - Spring Steam Gala 2012

This took place 23rd-25th March.
On Saturday 24th I was Shunter at Alton station. We had a major lineside fire which stopped trains running between Medstead and Alton for a couple of hours but other than that it was a good day.
Sunday 25th March I was Guard on a 3 coach set using for most of the day the visiting M7 class loco no. 53 from the Swanage Railway. First booked departure was 0917, so I signed in at Ropley at 0815 to prepare my coaches. The platforms had engines waiting to depart for their duties, so I took a few photos as I walked to my set.





While I was waiting for my first departure, I thought I'd take some photos of the inside of Ropley signal box for you.




And here are some more views of Ropley before I departed







here are some more photos I took during the rest of the day.













Monday 19 March 2012

The British Commercial Vehicle Museum in Leyland

Sunday 18th March

The Leyland National Group AGM was held here and here are my photos:





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