FR & WHR & WHHR News

Will it be called Welsh Pony 1.5?

 

Thank you for the link to the photos including you coaling Prince taken by Bill Hoole. If you don't mind me asking , what was he like to fire for? Did you ever fire for Tom Davies?

 

Yes this was still the plan when I was there last week. I believe they are still working out the details though. Expect it to be paired back somewhat unfortunately. No doubt passenger trains will be subject to much the same issues as now.

I'm not sure about gravity trains just yet but steam hauled freight and slate trains will almost certainly feature.

Boston Lodge are working towards having Hugh Napier back out for that weekend. Lilla could also put in appearance if the new injectors can be sorted out.

Tim

 

It was always a pleasure to fire for Bill. He was always keen to help a complete novice like me! I didn't do a lot of firing as I was mainly engaged on PW work. However, on one occasion the rostered fireman went off sick and I just happened to be around. Mike Elvy gave me a quick lesson on how to light up an engine and that was it. I was suddenly a fireman!

Apart from Bill, I only fired for Allan Garraway and Keith Catchpole.

 

Keith Catchpole. Now there's a name from my past! He was my chemistry teacher in the late 60's early 70's. Known as Casey to us. I thought it was because he ran the school model railway club. I knew he ran school trips up to Ffestiniog in the holidays, but hadn't realised he was a actually a driver. What ever happened to him? Did he move up to N Males when he retired I wonder?

 

Three very different drivers and personalities I’d imagine.

I was around on a day when AG visited the line long after his retirement and people still seemed quite frightened of him.

The PWay gangs sound as if they had some interesting characters.

There is the entry for KC on festipedia.

https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/Keith_Catchpole

 

Many Thanks. Interesting to read. I always remember he was a nice, genuine guy

 

I don't know whether he was passed to drive passenger trains; the time I fired for him was on a works train one evening after the daily passenger trains had finished running.

 

Somehow I managed to get on reasonable well with AGWG, but I know not everybody did. I was on the receiving end of his sharp tongue a couple of times though...

 

With three fairlies handling most of the passenger services (under normal conditions) what is the FRs small loco policy over the next few years when it comes to overhauls and funding them? Assuming that normal service resumes next year. The financial hit from covid means I guess that usefulness and amount of work needed will influence priority and speed of overhaul.

Several appear to be coming up ten year overhaul soon.

Taliesin -2020
Lyd -2020
Linda - 2021?
Prince - 2023?
Palmerston -2025?
Blanche - 2026?

I guess that Taliesin and Lyd's overhauls are assumed to be fairly fast as they are relatively new locos?

Linda and Prince coming in sooner rather than later I guess pushes back the Alco further. Poor old Alco.

Dinas Branch to Llechwedd?

It's a deviation and the Ffestiniog has many of them and their adherents.

The Fairbourne Beddgelert is as near as anyone is going to get the full size one, sadly

 

I've finally got around to putting some video together as below. Main focus was on stills (as per my previous post) and the video gear really isn't up to much, but perhaps of interest - No. 87 slipping a few times over the crossings in Beddgelert forest is impressive!

Includes one of the England double headers, Palmerston on the skips etc.

 

Boiler re-tubes and major overhauls are not the same thing. Some of those locos will only need a re-tube to go back out. It's largely seen as routine maintenance these days. That could be done inside a year by volunteers, or in few weeks by staff. Quite often locos tend to have mechanical attention on a regular basis, rather than waiting until re-tubes to do everything. Tal being the exception to that this time around. Linda, Prince and Merddin might pose a few more problems with the older boilers though.

The ALCo would be a different kind of project and needs rebuilding from the ground up. It is perfectly possible that this could run alongside routine maintenance, especially if there was lots of volunteer involvement.

Tim

 

The absence of 'The Square' (which I'd now include under the same heading as the Alco) from your list hasn't gone unnoticed, Tim!

 

I was thinking more of the impact of Covid on funding for projects, overhauls etc. Covid means obviously less money, social distancing impacts on volunteer parties.

If the new normal continues into next year then a similar kind of service - ie short trains to TyB would mean smaller locos are a priority. If you have less capacity and funding for fewer projects then something has to give. If of course, things return to normal, then larger locos become more important but the financial consequences remain and something still has to give.

Linda would take priority over say Prince for example.

The Alco was often described as 'after Welsh Pony is finished'. Alco as it is is a 'nice thing' to have, but will always be a lower priority unless say Linda is in such a bad way (unlikely) that it is considered quicker to do the Alco.

There is a broader point that the financial hit from Covid means so projects will be delayed, stalled or abandoned.

 

Fantastic!
Tried to count the wagons when climbing the spiral, got it to 60!
That's some slate train.

 

There's a slight ray of sunshine here. Keep the commercial jobs in mind too, as Blodge does a fair amount of contract work these days .... and (recovering from the Covid "hit"), this will doubtless provide more relief (than less) for the hard pressed coffers.

I often try counting 'em too ..... I wonder ...... when (not 'if') those wonderful waggoneers get the tally back over 100 serviceable waggons, will there be the meed to restore the extended loop, through the cutting, down from T-y-B's platform? Now there's a chunk of FR heritage I'd love to see restored!

 

Most of the work taking place right now is essentially projects that are already funded such as super saloon 808, Hugh Napier, Pickering Brake, NGG130 etc. The various support group are coming up with things they can fund through the winter. The Heritage Group will be funding the painting of Welsh Pony for example. No doubt things will be tight through the winter whatever happens.

On the waggon front. We were working though the fault book prior to Covid to get the fleet back up to the 60 odd in that video. There are a number of other goods waggons just waiting for the new wheelsets to be finished as well. We were hoping to run a 100ish vehicle train for the Fairlie event this year, even if it only went to Minffordd it would be quite a spectacle. Typically we can only fit about 53 waggons in the loop at T-y-B, however so long as the down train is in first the length of the up train doesn't matter so much.

Tim

 

The Victorian Weekend has been replaced by the Bygones Weekend. Further info on: https://www.festrail.co.uk/news_and_events_item/bygones-weekend/

 

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/jobs-risk-ffestiniog-welsh-highland-18938543 - fingers crossed that any redundancies can be kept to an absolute minimum ☹️