oh doctor beeching!

Bramley Station opened in 1865 as part of the Guildford - Horsham Branch Line. In 1876 a second platform was added and in June 1888 the station changed it's name to Bramley and Wonersh to encompass the nearby village of Wonersh.

On the 16th December 1942, a German plane dropped a bomb on a train leaving the station, badly damaging the train and killing 7 people, including the driver and the guard.

The Guildford - Horsham line was the only branch line in Surrey to be axed by Dr Beeching in 1965. Shortly after the main station building was demolished and a post box is all that remains.

The line took on new life in the 1980’s as it was redeveloped into the Downs Link, a public footpath and bridleway linking the North and South Downs. There's a series of caches along the line that with a bike to whizz you along between sites would be a grand day out.

In 2004, the local parish council and Bramley Historical Society renovated the station area by reinstating decorative crossing gates and a waiting room on one of the platforms.

lowe pro terraclime 30

I picked up one of these from the camera shop after buying the TZ4. I wanted a pouch type bag that allowed easy access to the camera that I could hang from hip belt of a rucksack.

It’s made from 35% recycled materials and it has the feel of a heavy cordura type fabric with minimum padding. Internally there are two pockets for SD cards or spare batteries, there’s a belt loop on the back, and it comes with a removable shoulder strap. The bag is secured with one of Lowe Alpine’s innovative zed buckles. On my postal scales it weighed 77g.

A straight forward modification of two Alpkit mini ‘biners clipped to the loops for shoulder strap were all that were required to hang it in place off a rucksack hip belt. In use on the Chilterns trip it was hassle free. An added bonus is that I can hang the bag off the belt loops of my walking trousers in the same way. Simple and effective.

happy birthday blog

You’re one year old today.

And as a special birthday treat I was going to bake you a cake but as this is a virtual world I found something better suited.

A blog about cakes, not specifically birthday ones, but cakes all the same. And these are special because they are professional made cakes, although to look at some you have to wonder what profession the cake maker is in because clearly it isn’t making cakes!

Now blow out the candle here and enjoy!

further musings on rucksack options

Following on from my ultra lightweight packing experiment at the weekend I had another think about whether the Talon 44 was my only option.

I did a search of gear shops and online gear sellers looking for possible alternatives to the Talon 44. The reason being is that the bag weighs 1100g (manufacturers weight) whereas the bag it is replacing, the OMM Villain, only weighs 930g in the configuration that I have used it in (this is with a 3/4 length mat in place of the back panel).

Looking at the alternatives, and there aren’t many it must be said, they all manage to weigh in at over 1500g. My philosophy when buying gear is simple if it is replacing something then I’d like it to weigh less, so you can imagine my dilemma when faced with a 170g hike in weight. This is where the US gear manufacturer Gossamer Gear comes in, they do a smaller version of their Mariposa Plus bag called a Miniposa that has the required capacity. And better still it weighs less than 500g. Very tempting especially as I like the look of it’s big brother however, although there is a UK supplier, it’s out of production. Another consideration is that it needs a pad or mat to form the back support. With the NeoAir being my mat of choice I’d have to draft in something specific for the task, and with it the additional cost and weight penalty. Along with cancelling the benefit of the double use of mat and back support. The same happens with the Villain; pack the NeoAir and I need to add the back panel. This takes the overall weight up to 1118g. The Miniposa is still the lighter choice but the Talon still holds a slight edge in my mind.