FR & WHR & WHHR News

Since when has Penrhyndeudraeth been on the WHR?!

 

Or the Welsh Mountain Railway as the blurb at the top says!

 

There is a convenient lay-by just around the corner

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Awful, truly awful! Keep them coming.

 

I'm not sure I fancy an "underground cellar/well" - at least not unless I get to pick which it is.

If the parking is tricky, just get a local small horse. I hear a Welsh Pony does well round there...

 

People in rural communities can be quite touchy about newcomers moving in from outside - so if you do buy it, you need to go to great efforts to assimilate with the local culture. You wouldn't want to be branded a Small Englander ...

Tom

 

If I recall, it's a fairly steep walk up from the main line station and bus stops.
Not a problem for an experienced Mountaineer, but my other half with her dodgy leg might struggle.
In fact, when I suggested buying it, she almost Blanched at the thought!

In other news, more details have been posted of the Bygones weekend and tickets are now available to book.
Thankfully, looks like it's back to normal Rover tickets, which is a relief as I've booked a holiday around it!

https://www.festrail.co.uk/bygones-weekend/

 

Evening All,

I've recently got back from a trip to Wales and whilst there filmed one of the massive 2ft gauge Welsh Highland Railway Garratts arriving at Porthmadog:



Ron.

 

Oh look ..... something big and green and bendy (2nd story dated 9th Sept 2022):

http://isengard.co.uk/#News

 

Depressingly in the worst style the Guardian can muster, but still good ffestiniog news

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/...g-line-became-a-world-beater-ffestiniog-wales

 

Even if I feel t'was the Spooners "plucked the line from obscurity" pretty effectively when Little Wonder hit the rails, I've read infinitely more grating articles!

 

Moving Pictures No.72 [22'26"] is out. And with the return of No.143 to the land of the living, a very 'Garratty' edition it is too. Keep an ear out for southbound No.87's impressive bird calls, around 11'25". There are some fantastic drone shots of 143's 'AGM Special', with Gorsaf Caernarfon from angles you've never seen before. With No.130 arriving on a service train from Porthmadog, this was the first time for a fair while there have been three big bendy things in steam. At Dinas, Lyd and Prince top'n'tailed a platform & carriage shed shuttle. For an 'event weekend', not the busiest, it has to be said.

 

I'm planning to vist for the 'Bygones Weekend' on the second weekend in October, while there's plenty of information on the festrail website about add on photo events etc, I can't seem to find any about which locos are operating...?

 

I'm also going to be there, so have been keeping a close eye on the info. The summary timetable only went up a couple of days ago, so I suspect loco allocations will follow in due course.

There were reports that the Baldwin had a bogie problem that prevented it working at the WHR AGM event, so hoping that it'll be back up and running in time.
Would be nice if it could haul at least one of the Beddgelert trips.

 

Palmerston, Welsh Pony, Merddin Emrys, David Lloyd George, Lyd and Blanche should be out each day. Prince has now been withdrawn for overhaul I believe.

 

608 is rostered to be in steam on the Friday. It isn't really up to pulling a train to Beddgelert at the present time.

Prince's boiler ticket expired last week.
Tim

 

Festipedia goes into no detail concerning 608's health. Anything untoward, or merely a Baldwin behaving as received wisdom suggests they did? I think the longest train I've a photo of behind old No.590 was three ex-NWNG bogies, or well below the length (and weight!) of even a half-rake of modern corridor stock

re: Prince Is this now a "don't ever use the Q word" 10 year job, or expected to be more involved?

....... And ...... Any ETA on the return of Tal yet

Thanks in advance.

 

I think the polite way of putting it is that 608 is a bit agricultural. It is a privately owned loco and the owner can only afford to do so much with it. Hopefully the recent work to the axleboxes and making the wheels concentric mean it is at least useable. It isn't fitted with a vac ejector so solo passenger trains aren't possible anyway.

Linda is likely to be next out the door at some point over the winter.

Taliesin is being worked on by volunteers who are drilling all the stays out. These are being changed to a different design to cure the issue with breakages. The power bogie will also need a full overhaul.

Prince is mechanically tired and hasn't seen much use this year. It will need the chassis and boiler looking at. Palmerston is also out of ticket soon however shouldn't need much more than a re-tube.

 

Out of curiosity, what sorts of annual mileages do FR locos run? What is the railway’s annual mileage and how does that split between the various locos?

Tom

 

Pre-covid the Double Engines did around 10000 a year, NGG16s usually a bit more sometimes up to 14000. Linda and Blanche typically did about 7000 and the England's maybe 2000 or less.

The amount of train miles has been drastically reduced now. So even though Blanche has done the lions share of the Woodland Wandenders this year it is only doing the equivalent of one full round trip a day. The Double Engines do two round trips most days but only one of them is needed. So if both are available then you can still cut the mileage in half.