Brecon Mountain Railway - extension?

Bloody hell that brings back chilhood TV memories, well remembered Anthony, probably explains why those Baldwin 2-6-2T's fascinate me so.

 

"come midnight monday" was the only thing which would get me out of bed early as a child, vaguely recall it being on at something like 7.30am on a saturday morning back in the days when you had to be in front of the TV at the required time to watch it. IIRC it was in the days before we had a VCR. No continuous repeats or 'on demand' streaming... ah The good old days...

 

If you'd phrased that differently I would bring the story up to date but as you seem to thing that there's a good chance the story is fabricated I won't.
Peter Johnson

 

It's fine, it's meant to open in April according to the report so I haven't got too long to wait to find out if it's true.

 

Pretty sad sign if there's a default assumption that media in the railway preservation industry can't be trusted. I'm a reader of railway mags (although only Railways Illustrated on an every-month-without-fail basis) rather than actively involved in preservation so I can only guess from outside , but I'm a managing editor in another field entirely, and it would infuriate me hugely if any of our articles prompted an "is there any truth in this?" comment on a forum. If we weren't certain it was true, we wouldn't publish it! OK it's a bit of an optimistic generalisation to apply that to all media, but I know that's how my own newsdesk works. It's not like the subjects of our journalism don't also read it/aren't litigious, and if we were regularly publishing lies we wouldn't still be around to start our 64th year of publication in 2014. Surely the same must go for the longer-lasting railway mags?

Back on topic, I've paid a couple of visits to Brecon in the last two years and love the scenery and journey (and the food in the cafe). I'd already pencilled in an Easter weekend visit to the BMR and Pontypool, so if the extension's a possibility by then too, even better.

 

The BMR's 2014 leaflet has the words "Extension to Torpantau opening 1st April" emblazoned on the front cover; sounds pretty genuine to me! The website doesn't appear to have been updated yet.

 

Thanks Andrew. I haven't seen a leaflet yet, I was just going by the website but I agree that sounds pretty real to me too!

 

I've already set out my thoughts on the current state of the railway magazines at length in the Scotsman overhaul thread in March last year, so for what it's worth, here they are again:

I hasten to add that the above comments are not in any way directed at Peter Johnson, whose column has always been a reliable source as far as I can remember!

 

You won't give up, will you? If you are that desperate to know why not ring the railway, like I did.

 

In 23 years there's bound to be some mistakes but I've only had to run corrections probably less than five times and apologise once, due to a misunderstanding. There have been a number of occasions where I said that something was going to happen, based on information received, that didn't happen but no-one's ever had grounds for accusing me of making things up.
Regarding the BMR, the information came from the website, where it says

You have to ferret about to find it though. I was able to get 'April' just before the last issue went to press. There will be more information in the next issue.
Peter Johnson

 

Peter, don't take it personally, my original comment was based on a number of things, as Muztrem says thst have appeared in the railway press that are just not true or based on rumour. Clearly this wasn't.

I'm not desperate to know when, or previously if, the extension is due to open, just interested. I go up there quite regularly and have walked in the area and seen the extension tracks just sitting there unused and it always seemed odd to lay the track and then just leave it. The last time I was up there, late last year, one of the staff said that they needed two powerful locos to haul trains on the extension, presumably the Pacific and another. He also said that he didn't expect it to open "anytime soon", hence my surprise at your report.

As a bit of idle speculation, could the extra motive power be those three Bagnalls that are available?

 

This is excellent news. I live fairly close to the line and have watched progress at Torpantau whilst visiting Talybont Reservoir (which the BMR should hopefully reach eventually) over the years.

I'd love to see one of those blasting its way up to 1300ft!
I wonder if this means that Baldwin No.1 is complete? When I visited in July it didn't look near that, but then given what Statfold can do (and the facilities at Pant) I wouldn't be surprised if it is.

Jon

 

If they are the three Bagnalls I'm thinking of I doubt if they would have the power.

 

Having seen said Bagnalls less than two weeks ago, very handsome engines but I'd have to agree with you.

 

Triple-headed Bagnalls, maybe

 

This does now appear on the website:
http://www.breconmountainrailway.co.uk/news/brecon-mountain-railway-reaches-the-summit

I visited Torpantau station today and to be honest not much has changed. The points have been oiled but it is, as described in the press release, bereft of facilities.

 

...gee there's a lot of negativity on here!

 

The extension opened today. I travelled on the second train in the front seat of the coach behind the loco. There has been some recent tree clearance but more is required. I will post more including some photos when back home later in the week.

 

Some photos from the first train:

 

By the look of it, there is no room for errors in the head shunt