A week in Wales...

A week in Wales…

/ May 27, 2012 / Leave a comment / News
Below: A weeks holiday in North Wales enabled, amongst other things, a wide selection of narrow gauge railways to be visited and in some cases ridden on during some exceptionally hot weather.  Starting at the Llanberris based Welsh Slate Museum, where part of a large collection of local slate wagons are displayed.  Here are just some of them, in the main courtyard of the preserved workshop complex.

Below: The same location is the base for the Llanberris Lake Railway, which operates three ‘Quarry Hunslet’ type 0-4-0STs along the shores of the lake.  A fourth locomotive of this type, though not from the adjacent Dinorwic Quarry, is preserved, in working order, in the museum itself.

Below: A feature of the museum is this reconstructed incline.

Below: A train returns from the lake and heads for the station located almost opposite the Snowdon Mountain Railway station in the main town area.

Below: Next day, we headed for the Welsh Highland Railway, where NGG16 No.87 was the motive power, seen here arriving into Porthmadog Harbour Station, in company with Fairlie ‘Earl of Merioneth’ which would take the next Ffestiniog departure in the opposite direction.

Below: A view en-route, showing No.87 descending around the curves north of Rhyd Ddu.

Below: Taking water at Caernarfon.

Below: Trains pass at Rhyd Ddu, the summit of the line, here NGG16 No.143 heads north, with the afternoon train from Porthmadog.

Below: No.87 descends into the Aberglaslyn pass, one of the most stunning lengths of railway line anywhere.

Below: The following day we walked up Snowdon, a rather warm experience!  This walk was not without railway interest, as the path from Llanberis runs alongside the Snowdon Mountain Railway for much of its length.  Most of the trains on Wednesday were diesel propelled, but two steam locomotives were in operation.  Here a diesel propels its coach towards ‘Halfway’.
Below: At the summit, the appropriately named ‘Snowdon’ awaits departure back down the mountain.  Note the inclined boiler (to cope with the constant gradient) and the indirect drive – the cylinders are located beneath the nameplate, driving via a rocking arm at the front of the engine.
Below: ‘Snowdon’ starts its descend of Snowdon, high above the clouds.
Below: A train propelled by one of the later batch of steam locomotives used on the SMR scrambles its way up the mountain.
Below: Another glorious day, and this time a trip on the Ffestiniog behind double Fairlie engine ‘Merddin Emrys’. In contrast to previous photographs which have appeared on this blog at this location, this view shows Blaenau Ffestiniog bathed in hot sunshine!

Below: Upon returning to Porthmadog, the Fairlie was joined by its much more recent (but traditionally designed) fellow Fairlie, named ‘David Lloyd George’.  The pair then headed off together with the mid afternoon train.

Below: Minutes later the Welsh Highland service rolled in behind No.143.

Below: A recent addition to the FR stocklist is this Hunslet built 0-4-0ST ‘Hugh Napier’ which arrived from the National Trust’s Penrhyn Castle Museum for completion of its restoration.  This has now been achieved, to a superb standard and the locomotive looks absolutely stunning.  Having admired recent photographs of the engine online, I was therefore very pleased to see it in steam, pottering around the works at Boston Lodge and using the turntable to turn before returning to the shed.

Below: Inside the engine shed was one of the oldest (George England built ‘Palmerston’) and the newest (the recently completed Lynton & Barnstaple Railway prairie tank ‘Lyd’).

Below: One of the heritage projects underway at Boston Lodge, in the very well appointed joinery shop, is the replication of an early ‘Sentry Box’ brakevan for use in the heritage train.  The FR and its various supporting bodies have been very proactive in filling the gaps in the material remains of the railway, including now quite extensive replication of rolling stock which hadn’t otherwise survived.

And so we completed a fantastic week on holiday, featuring some railways (!) along the way!