Sunday dawned bright and early. Not that this affected me, I slept right through it. The day's first fixture was at the surprisingly civilised hour of 11.00. With a B&B just 10 minutes walk from the station, I had plenty of time for a leisurely and excellent breakfast.

I arrived at the imposing Oswestry station, once the HQ of the Cambrian Railways, to be met by a mix of familiar faces and 'normals'. Our party of 61 members had booked an entire coach (the front one, of course) on the first timetabled train, the other two coaches being available to the general public. The first order of business was to find Kev and check in. This briefly became like a farce - Kev entered the station by one door as I left by another. Finally catching up with our Fixtures Secretary, I received my Edmondson card ticket and a commemorative certificate. The latter was to mark the reopening of Cambrian Heritage Railways' Weston Wharf extension; this was only the second day of public running.

The certificate features a picture of Class 73 E6036 'City of Winchester' across the whole of one side. Unfortunately the 73 didn't feel like playing today and had failed on the inbound service, so there was a slight delay while the railway rustled up a Ruston as a replacement. This was 11517 'Alun Evans', which rumbled into view a few minutes after we should have left. The operating staff were very smart in attaching the train engine, Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST 'Henry Ellison' and soon we were away.

It is a pleasant downhill run south to Weston Wharf. We seemed to be going at a reasonable speed for an industrial tank but were overtaken by a man with a dog on a bicycle! The dog (a tracker?) seemed to enjoy his ride as much as we were enjoying ours. Soon we were at Weston Wharf, where almost everyone alighted for a quick look at this brand new, very neat station (historically a goods station only). There is a waiting room in the former goods shed and a buffet in an ex-LNER First Class Mk3 (the refreshments were first class too, and a wide choice). The platforms allow views of the stock, which includes two Pacers, and there is some plinthed narrow gauge stock from the former 2ft gauge Weston Wharf Light Railway here, which the Society visited on that iconic 1 Apr 2012 and 28 Aug 2016 (report BLN 1264.1710). The good news is that all the lifted track is stored in a container with a view to being relaid in future, probably at Oswestry; the move to Brymbo failed to happen (BLN 1391.MR226).

Soon the saddle tank had run round and it was back into our Mk1 suburban brake third E43145 for the noticeably 1½ mile uphill return journey. Conversation in our compartment turned to the astounding number of Pacers that have been preserved and, inevitably, rail journeys we would like to make.

Back at Oswestry there was good news from the Fixtures Secretary. Our tickets were actually Day Rovers. Would we like another journey? It almost seemed rude not to, so many of us took the 12.00 departure to Weston Wharf (only slightly delayed), this time with the Ruston at the business end. Unlike Weston Wharf there is no run round loop yet at Oswestry so the locos alternate on trains.

Your correspondent alighted here and went to the Stonehouse Brewery, right next to the station. There is a gate in the fence for direct access. The brewery has a modern bar with a huge beer garden. They were offering a free half pint for customers arriving by train, in exchange for clipping the Edmondson in the traditional way. A hot sandwich was sampled too. Then it was back to the station café for a slice of apple pie and a takeaway coffee. An excellent lunch but it really needed walking off.

We also had an afternoon fixture, about three miles away, so I set off on foot allowing a generous 80 minutes for the walk. After half a mile of Wat's Dyke Way, roughly parallel to and to the west of the Cambrian line, a public footpath was taken east, crossing the railway via an occupation crossing.

Then it was along the east side of the line, using the foot and cycle path that is on the Down formation of this once double track line. Here the on time 13.30 from Weston Wharf went past, with the Barclay in charge again, allowing a photo. I crossed the line again, this time via the foot crossing south of Oswestry station, allowing a view into the empty loco shed. Once past the station, I was still parallel to the line but on the west side of the disused section. I went past the interesting and very long lattice footbridge, indicating that there were once many lines here at the Cambrian Railways' HQ, loco works, carriage works etc (most of the attractive buildings survive in alternative use). I crossed the line a third and final time by a road underbridge and then it was the B4580 to Oswestry Showground.

Nestled at the back of the showground is the Oswestry & North Shropshire Miniature Engineering Society's track. This is a convoluted 'O' ¼ mile run of elevated 3½/5'' mixed gauge track in pleasant parkland. I arrived 15 minutes early but it looked as if I had arrived late; our Miniature Members were already enjoying rides in the sunshine. The very friendly society had started running as soon as the first participants arrived. This was private running for our 21 booked members - normally they only operate during shows and on the second Sunday of the month 11.00-16.00 (mostly with steam locos).

We all enjoyed unlimited runs over the circuit, with most sampling all four locos on offer: A chunky quarry Hunslet, a beautiful scale model of a BR Standard 4MT tank, a freelance 2-6-0T and a diesel outline Bo-Bo. The latter didn't have a riding vehicle, but a quick request to add one was readily agreed by our helpful hosts and the required loco was copped. The great thing about elevated lines is their inherent stability, allowing (relatively) fast and exhilarating running safely. The automatic signalling with track circuits was interesting where 'line of site' was not possible in the curved deep cutting.

The layout isn't just an 'O'; there is a loop that allows access to the steaming bays. A request was made and soon the two substantial sets of points were changed. Every participant had a run over the loop except for one: me! It seems I was too busy chatting and missed the relevant departures. Then the loop was temporarily occupied by one of the locos that needed to be taken out of service but I had to leave or miss my trains home on the big railway from Gobowen to Hull. Lesson learned. Next time!

Thanks to Kev and Tim for organising these fixtures and to the very friendly volunteers at both lines.

Hopefully we will be back at both soon. There are some awfully long sidings on the standard gauge at Oswestry without much stock parked on them and as for all those new tracks at Weston Wharf...