FR & WHR & WHHR News

This single train was run after the days service had finished on 19th April and prior to the evening farewell to Russell party. 590 had not had an FTR completed before its annual boiler cert expired. It was steamed to test some repairs to the air pump and Gelert had been warmed for the following days service so the opportunity was take to run all three locos on the main line together. 590 is due cold and hot inspections in May and should return to service in June (possibly May half term but not checked the dates vs hot boiler test.)

 

Thanks very much - desolated that I missed it! (I tried to extend my stay in Port. for one more night, but there was not a single hotel bed in the town, apparently - good for the town to be full. but not so good for me)
I see that Russell's participation in the "Railway 200" parade on Sunday 22 June is now confirmed (not in steam, of course). Billed as being towed by Taliesin. Pity, in a way, that it can't be 590 doing that haulage.....if all goes well with testing, etc.
Gelert's Farm have had some very bad luck, in engineering terms, with both Russell and 590 over the last couple of years - otherwise, there could perhaps have been a decent overlap, operationally. Still - something to look forward to later in the decade, I guess. J

 

I would have been there for that if I had known about it.

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BV4GWc8KQ/

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING...

While many are enjoying this marvellous spell of unseasonably warm weather, it is creating difficulties for us.

Due to the increased fire risk we have made the decision to substitute diesel locomotives in place of steam on our Ffestiniog Railway services for the next few days.

On the Welsh Highland Railway, services will (at the moment) continue to be steam hauled, but train lengths have been reduced and we are also running a special train ahead of and between services spraying the lineside with water to reduce fire risk.

We hope that you understand the reasons behind this - and reassure you that as our trains will still be running through the beautiful scenery of North Wales, the view from your carriage window will be as breath-taking as ever.

So, please come and enjoy the Spring sunshine with us over the Bank Holiday. There'll certainly be a warm Welsh welcome waiting for you..!



ALL CHANGE, PLEASE...

Locomotives rostered for Ffestiniog Railway services today and tomorrow as VALE OF FFESTINIOG and UPNOR CASTLE.

VALE OF FFESTINIOG...
THURSDAY:
• 10:40 'Mountain Spirit' to Blaenau Ffestiniog
FRIDAY
• 10:40 'Mountain Spirit' to Blaenau Ffestiniog
• 14:50 'Woodland Wanderer' to Tan-y-Bwlch

UPNOR CASTLE...
THURSDAY:
• 11:10 'Woodland Wanderer' to Tan-y-Bwlch
• 14:50 'Woodland Wanderer' to Tan-y-Bwlch

PS: A sneak peek at next week's FR loco roster shows diesels exclusively for the next six days..!

 

No. A self-imposed problem.

 

Noise? Not much could be done about that, but there was a time and a place to make lots of it, and in a station was not one of them. Smell? No need for a smell when it was done correctly.

 

How is it a self imposed problem?
Do you think the FR can somehow control the weather?

 

Coverage of this year's Snowdonian (26th April) - featuring James Spooner, Taliesin, Garratt 87 and the K1 - together with 87 and 134 double-headed on the return

 

I am sure that some of The Great & The Good there consider that to be perfectly feasible!

I was a driver there until 2007. Shall we just say that it was only locos that burnt black rocks back then that had any anti-lineside fire restrictions placed on them, we used to call them "red days" - not allowed above Penrhyn IIRC. Otherwise, the steam-hauled service ran as normal.

And then they changed it. I, not wanting to be responsible for burning down somebody's house, walked away...

 

Apologies -- was obviously unclear. By smell I was referring to the miasma of smoke from re-used sump oil (which I was told later was also carcinogenic) - and by noise the roar of the burners which could be heard several metres away. And I did once see the aftermath of a blown-out smokebox door - we heard that a mile away!
However, in the US oil firing seems to be the norm, so has presumably been refined.
As a traditionalist I would miss appreciating the skills of the firemen (particularly in the very confined Fairlies) - as I am sure would they. Perhaps in 20 or 30 years we'll see battery electric or fuel cell driven trains with a free-wheeling unpowered "steam loco" on the front (or better, a proper steam loco but only in light steam)....... or perhaps the new generation will be happy with other motive power, as is used on many non-UK heritage lines - I must say that the diesel-hauled Wanderer looked quite attractive James

 

It's worth noting that it's now 20 years since the FR decided to go back to coal firing and this is the first time the service has actually been dieselised for any length of time.

A lot of the recent issues have been fuel specific. On welsh coal could thrash a double engine though the tunnel and see nothing come out the chimney. Mitigations during dry spells was usually to reduce loads and run slower or diesel assistance. By and large this was effective. The latest batch of ovoids however seem to give off lots of very small and very hot sparks that just pass though the spark arrestor. They come out even with just the blower on never mind pulling trains. So the usual mitigations aren't working.

Oil firing is great but the economics are still very difficult. The infrastructure and equipment has been sold or scrapped too. Short sighted perhaps but if you can't afford to run a train on it then it's not much use. It's not a panacea to all problems unfortunately.

 

Sump oil was only used before my time started there (1996). Roar of the burners: as I said, there was a time and a place for that to happen.

 

Not being at all familiar with the Ffestiniog in that era - was the noise of the burners louder than, say, a vacuum brake ejector? They can be pretty loud if left running.

Tom

 

It depends how much you turned it up. On tickover they were quite quiet. If you were on The Square and as usual having a big blow up at Tanybwlch they would be very loud and make an unsettling pulsing vibration. Standing trackside you could definitely hear the rumble from quite far away.

The Festiniog locos seemed particularly loud compared to other oil firing setups I've experienced. Perhaps it was something to do with the small fireboxes.

I've never quite understood why some vac ejectors are whisper quiet and some sound like jet engines either.

 

Having recently spoken to somebody involved with the FfR, I understand that there are also issues with COSHH regulations, which have become tighter since 2006. Before that the FfR was able to keep its oil costs down by using waste oil--the new regulations make that more difficult, unfortunately.

Sent from my SM-A125F using Tapatalk

 

The FR had moved away from waste oil towards fuel oil (aka red diesel) well before it moved away from oil firing. I would put it at some point in the mid 90s at the latest but my memory may be faulty.

John

 

They stopped collecting waste oil themselves but that didn't mean stopped burning it. Usually it was just whatever was cheapest and flammable. Sometimes that was waste from somewhere else. Quality was variable. Sometimes it would be full of dirt that clogged things up. Sometimes it would have loads of water in which would really ruin your day.

 

I remember attempting to raise steam on a ship with no thermometers in the fuel system & burning something that wasn't fuel oil.

Oh and with no steam that meant no oil heaters and a manual pump.

On day 2 I went off for the day on a steam special & missed the arrival of the fire brigade after she had smoked out the centre of Bristol

 

Can well believe it.
Anyway - back to the present day (for the moment!) - it's still very dry in Eryri. Looking at the medium-term forecast, it seems there may be some rain before the Platinum Jubilee event at mid-summer - or possibly even during it! Let's hope so, as a tremendous amount of effort has obviously gone into this one, including getting almost the entire steam fleet in working order at once. A Faceache taster on the proposed timetable is amazing in its complexity and sheer number of trains (mostly on the FR, inevitably, as this event was, I think, originally advertised as a celebration of 70 years of the FR Society, although it has seemingly broadened since then, to everyone's benefit). There are a number of extras - one already sold out - and these include a dedicated viewing area at the Lodge for the Cavalcade - I imagine this particular facility will also go very fast. Looks like an event - similar to 'Hunslet 100' - which will be long remembered.

https://www.festrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/The-Story-behind-the-Railway-200-FR-Platinum-Jubilee-Weekend.pdf

James