Welsh Highland Railway opens to Beddgelert...

Er, no, as this would have been the only time it would ever come in useful.

 

I see a brilliant vid of the Beddgelert extension has just been uploaded to Youtube by 'andalfi1' - definately worth watching, if only for the first shot

High Quality - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5F3TeohQVs&fmt=18

HD - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5F3TeohQVs&fmt=22

Chris

 

Wow ! Shall be heading there this summer for sure =D>

 

As the fireman on that day and the target for the 'stones' I'm pleased to confirm that they were actually lumps of moss. Target practice is an occupational hazard at Caernarfon unfortunately. Such incidents are always reported though....

Glad you enjoyed your visit!

Cheers
Mark

 

How come NGG16 no.87 needs "duckboards" around the filler cover on the water tank when no.143 doesn't? Is this authentic/original or just another Health & Safety requirement?

http://roger-dimmick.fotopic.net/p57397108.html

Richard

 

Could be that they just do not want to damage the paint with the crews safety boots :-#

 

The loco's appearance reflects, as closely as possible, its 'as built condition' requested by the sponsor...

So, yes - they're authentic; no - they're not original; no - it's not a 'Health & Safety' requirement...

 

It's authentic and correct for no. 87 but would not be for 143. There are a lot of differences between the tanks of the batches of NGG16s they come from, and they include the fillers and related arrangements. 87 has a fairly small/conventional hatch, whereas 138, 140 and 143 have something sort of more like pub cellar doors.

 

As shown in http://roger-dimmick.fotopic.net/p57397109.html ...

 

And while 143 has a safe flat surface on top of the tank, 87 has a rounded top and is therefore less safe?

 

Thanks for all the explanations. It's surprising how different manufacturers can build "standard" NGG16 designs with so many differences. The FR will need to keep or make spares for each different version, I suppose?

Richard

 

With several batches of locos being produced over a wide period of time, it's not too surprising to find that there are detail differences between them... normally resulting from experience of 'day to day' use in the 'real' world.

No.87 has the early style cab which is considerably smaller than the later style - recognisable by the lack of side window behind the cab doorway. It also has the plain cabside plating in front of the doorway - rather than the curved section added to later designs, giving more 'knuckle-room' when operating the reverser screw handle...

Most of the differences between batches could best be described as cosmetic, as the basic running gear is more or less standard throughout, so there's less of a problem with keeping a wide range of spares...

 

There is not alot standard about 87 compered to 143,140 or 138!

 

Well, yes there is, maybe not in the details, but surely the boilers and some other bits are interchangeable. There are almost always some differences between different batches of the same design - look at the quarry Hunslets, the A3's or the Black 5's to give three highly diverse examples. But there still are more similarities than differences in all three.

While no doubt the PTB's would have preferred to get all their superpower from the same batch surely it makes it more interesting for us? I don't expect they will have any real maintenance problems - after all, how standard are the double Fairlies? But they manage just fine.

 

For comparison, there are pictures of NGG13 and NGG16 at Sandstone on my fotopic site.

 

Who cares about Garratts are their differences?! The WHR opens through the pass in TWO days time!!!!!!!

 

Oh yes... \/

 

I bet you cloned out a little maroon fiesta from the second picture! We were passing that spot just as the train came out of T4!

 

Much as it might please me to get rid of you... ;-)

No cloning out was involved, though I did clone in the 1900 Renault, as (despite many prayers and crossed fingers) it passed one minute before the train... ](*,)

Still, I couldn't miss the chance to produce a pastiche of the famous 1923 publicity photograph, now could I..! =D>

 

Where is Hen Haford in relation to the rest of the route, the map on the WHR site doesn't seem to show it, also any idea when opening to Port MIGHT be ?, tried looking for myself but to no avail.