Welsh Mountaineer: Steam to Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Railway Touring Company have announced that 4 steam railtours will run to Blaenau Ffestiniog in the summer.

The dates that RTC have pencilled in are:

Wed 28th July
Wed 11th Aug
Wed 18th Aug
Wed 25th Aug

The tour will be steam hauled all the way from Preston, to Frodsham-Chester-Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog and return. Ticket prices have yet to be announced by RTC.

A locomotive has also yet to be confirmed.

 

Given the difficulties with Black 5's last year I would imagine that the most likely candidate will be 48151.

 

Either that or severe load restrictions, either way it's likely to be pricey owing to a reduced load which is why im suprised they have commited to 4 dates.

 

could be the usual cancellations for a number of reasons, low booking or engineering works etc

 

As the set up costs for planning a steam trip are the same for 1 trip or a series within a short time, I suspect the 4 trips being booked is to split these costs over the 4 trains.

Steven

 

I hope it is the 8F - one of these will be on my to do list this year if they run.

I've never riden behind an 8F on the main line, but after seeing this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X7mVOZk54M

I really want to!

 

I think another reason why RTC have commited to 4 trips to Blaenau this year is that they don't want to run to Holyhead as the bookings for their NWCE for 2008 and 2009 were only about 75% full.

The 8F would be the ideal engine, owning if it's finished??

 

Looks like another Llangollen railtour could be on the cards seeing as we did the Cambrian last year

 

Ah yes another of Linesiders fine videos, but I don't think there's much chance of that sort of sight on the Blaenau line..

 

Railway Touring Company have announced that the loco rostered for all 4 tours will be Black 5 45231 'The Sherwood Forester'.

Although on their webpage they have a picture of Stanier 8F 48151???

 

Looks like a load 5 limit then if no 'assistence' is involved, i wish RTC the best of luck with profit margins seemingly that tight.

 

Probably they will take 10 to Llandudno Junction then 2 x 5 up the branch, splitting the train was previously applied with the standard tanks.

Cheers Dave

 

I'll try agian with apologies for my last posting .above....
8F 48151 is the proposed motive power for these trains with load 7//8. The RTC website has it wrong.......... again. The standard of their website is nothing short of a disgrace as there is something wrong with the descriptions of more or less every train they have advertised for the summer.

 

There really is a very strong programme developing for 2010 and some hard decisions will have to be made as to how much I can afford! However a trip behind the 8F to BF is a must in August - surely load 7/8 shouldn't be a problem for a heavy haul class 8 freight engine?

 

As i'm booked into somewhere for filming of 'The Cambrian', i'll be able to capture 'The Welsh Mountaineer' on the 28th July and was wondering if anybody would be able to offer some locations for video of the engines working to their potential. I've never been around this line before... So will all be new territory.

Many thanks in advance,
Simon

 

Climb one of the hills around Roman Bridge station. As far as I can make out, this is the only really open section of the line, though it's above the the steepest and twistiest part. The longer views are from the NW side of the line, but that will be against the sun - if it's out!

For the return, see if you can (legitimately) get up above the tunnel mouth looking back to BF. The line climbs quite steeply away from the station. IIRC, there are some open hillsides along there, but there are slate waste tips and old quarry workings too, so not sure how much is accessible.

The Ffestiniog line runs parallel with the standard guage for perhaps half a mile out of BF, so you might even get a parallel departure!

 

Thanks for the advice, hopefully it'll stay half decent at least and not rain...

Just had a look, got a location in mind at Roman Bridge and looking at the Blaenau Ffestiniog map, theres a footcrossing over the line on one of the curves. I would quite like to do this shot here but fear it may have been taken from the Quarry. I'll have to take a look when I get there.

 

You can walk up the side of the slate. That shot it taken from a disused viaduct which you can stand on. You can see it in the background of this photo http://railways.mjspencer.com/gallery/v/Sept09/IMG_4826.JPG.html

 

Thanks for the information Matt. Much appreciated.