Departing Porthmadog and two great evenings and a great day on the Ffestiniog, we continued north through Wales to the north coast. Our first stop, was Penrhyn Castle, now a National Trust site, but once the home of the Pennant family, a very powerful family in the Slate Industry. Penrhyn Castle until earlier this year, had a fairly large railway museum, but most of the collection was not related to the railways the family owned for their slate mines, and was recently donated away to other locations, including the Vale of Rheidol we had visited monday, where Fire Queen and a coach are now located.
Original Penryhn Quarry Hunslet Charles, and a Rushton Diesel, pretty much all that was left of a being redeveloped railway museum. Linda seen at Ffestiniog yesterday was also originally a Penryhn locomotive.
Departing Penryhn, we headed for Great Orme. What is Great Orme? Its a spit of land that rises up to a high point, with a weather station and observatory. Its one of those places that at some point someone decided it was an interesting place people might want to go on a day out. I can’t disagree, the views were tremendous, and it has both the cable hauled tram and a gondola service to the summit. Around the “base” is the Marine Drive Scenic Toll Road, which we also drove. While we didn’t ride the Great Orme Tramway, we did see it in our trip planning, and think it would be an interesting location. Picking our way through Llandudno to find the road up the hill, we missed the parts running in the urban area, but found it as we got out into the open. While our timing didn’t allow us to take a ride on the tramway, its very much a cool thing to have seen and photographed/videoed. I don’t have a lot to say having not ridden, but the people riding certainly looked to be enjoying themselves. We had other places to be though on this Wednesday afternoon, as we had to get on to Wrexham and The Racecourse Ground before the club shop closed!
Tramway infrastructure for cable haulage. An “up” cable and the “down” cable, where a car is on each so they go up and down in unison meeting in the middle between the stations.
Trams 6 and 7 meet half way between the “Half Way” station where you change trams and the summit station at the top.
When we started planning our trip in detail months ago, one of the decisions was that the main “Railway thing” would be a visit to the Ffestiniog Railway in Porthmadog. Partly because it was very high on my list of places I wanted to go, but also because I knew we could get some luxury Pullman Observation for our day out, this was after-all, our 10th anniversary. We did the Jacobite in Scotland in 1st class on our Honeymoon a decade ago, so we needed something equally luxurious for this trip. I was online the morning 2024 tickets went on sale for the Ffestiniog in February, and had our tickets booked before anyone else could get the prime observation seats 1&2 assigned to them, yes, I’m that guy. If I’m gonna spend the money, I wanted the two seats right at the end with the big window!
With this being a big part of our trip, it was also the one place before we got to London where we spent multiple nights. We booked into the Premier Inn immediately across the road from Harbour Station. After arriving on Monday evening, we got settled into the hotel and made our way across the street to Spooner’s, the railways Pub/Restaurant in the station. We had an excellent dinner, along with pints of Purple Moose, the local brewery in Porthmadog. I try very hard to spend money when I visit railways in the UK, even when I don’t ride (though we were here), as while I can’t be a regular customer, I derive a lot of enjoyment reading magazines and viewing pictures/videos from those in the UK and of the work being done in the preservation sector there. I know there is a great debate about “photographic freeloaders” who don’t support or are not perceived to support the railways to keep them running. I don’t buy into those arguments necessarily, but I do believe that the least I can do is provide as much of my business to the railways when I am there as I can. We would be back at Spooner’s bright and early on Tuesday when they opened for our breakfast, and for me to spend faaar too much money on narrow gauge 009 models among other things in the railways gift-shop.
While we were having breakfast, the “other” half of the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway that we wouldn’t be experiencing on this trip, the “Welsh Highland Railway” train to Caernarfon came across the Cob from the Boston Lodge shops to head the other direction from which we would be travelling. The WHR is home to trains generally hauled by South African Garrett articulated locomotives. Its also a longer day out, and part of our choice in the Ffestiniog Trip, was that it left time in the day to do some off-train railfanning after we’ve ridden, making the most of our time. That said, I went out in the pouring rain to capture the WHR train coming across from the shops, and then again in less rain, making what has to be one of the most interesting departures on a railway anywhere. As you can see in the pictures below, WHR trains snake across the street into and out of the Porthmadog station, and quite literally stop traffic while it passes over a bridge across the harbour to reach the right of way across the street. This was something I had to capture.
WHR Garrett 87 leading its train to Porthmadog, and then departing for Caernarfon.
For our trip, we would be in one of the Ffestiniog built “Super Barn” Pullman Observation coaches. For the trip on the “Mountain Spirit” service from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog, our coach would be at the rear of the train with a wide open view behind us as the train climbed up the line. Quite literally, the entire trip up is almost all climbing, as the Ffestiniog was designed to be a gravity operated railway. In early days, slate wagons were run downhill by the weight of the loads, with brakemen riding on the cars. The Ffestiniog actually recreates this a couple of times a year at events, and has been seen in TV shows. I would love to see that in person some day, as its a fascinating window into the way things were done in the past. But, back to our ride, we got settled in for the trip up, into our big comfy chairs and got set for departure.
Our ride for the day, Ffestiniog Built “Super Barn” Pullman Observation Coach 152, “Eryri-Snowdonia”
As we departed, the car host took our orders for morning coffee/tea and we watched the world go by as the weather slowly started to improve. The view from the back of the observation car is everything we had hoped and expected, a great way for you to enjoy the line and have a unique view on the railway. I have had the luxury of going through tunnels in open brake vans in the past, and the next best thing is doing it in an observation car, if only because you get all the fun of darkness and smoke without actually having to hold your breath!
Views from an observation car from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
Upon arrival at Blaenau, there was a chance to check out the locomotive, and go for a walk about town. We had a nice walk, and a great hot chocolate, and then it was all to soon back to the train. After some more photographs, before we knew it, we needed to be on or we’d miss our ride! The weather had largely cleared up, and the sun even tried hard to make an appearance at Blaenau. Once we were back on board, a beer for the ride down was dutifully ordered to be enjoyed while watching the locomotive work.
Oi, get out of my photo (this of course, is actually me as photographed by my wife), Standard Gauge and Narrow Gauge track together at Blaneau Station, our locomotive for the day, double Fairlie “David Lloyd George” and scenes from the return trip down the mountain where our view was one end of the locomotive working hard.
After we returned, it was time for some railfanning. My better half retired to the hotel for a rest, while I hopped in the rental car and got away from the platform or on the train. I knew that there would be 4 trains I could potentially catch, the afternoon WHR departure, and 3 Ffestiniog trains. The WHR departure was clearly delayed, and I made the call to bail on that and drive up the line as far as I thought I could to try and catch the Ffestiniog’s newest locomotive, James Spooner (completed 2023) working toward Blaenau. I also hoped to do some drone flying. I got to a location just past Pendryn Station, where the line crosses a road at a manually operated crossing with stone cottages in the background. I got there in lots of time, got my drone up, and then, the wind appeared…my drone was flying away when I wasn’t moving it, and then when I was moving it, it only slowed the movement the wrong way. After a brief panic, and a change to sport (my drone’s more aggressive flight mode), and dropping some altitude, I got it back under control and recovered it. This felt like it was an age of panic, but really it was like 2 minutes. But I was very close to considering if an organized “crash” landing in a random Welsh persons backyard and then going to find it was going to be the necessary outcome. That said, I got the shot I wanted of James Spooner, and then headed back down the line to Minnfford station for my next catch, our trains locomotive David Lloyd George now hauling the “Vintage Train” of historic coaches. I got it, and a surprisingly long stop, and then went back to the Cob causeway near the Boston Lodge workshops for my final catch of the day, Hunslet “Linda” returning “The Quarryman” to Blaenau Ffestiniog. All in all, a super successful train geek day out where I saw everything running, and got the chance to photograph them out on the line, not just in a station.
Getting away from the train. The Caernarfon-Porthmadog-Caernaerfon WHR train waiting to leave, James Spooner on the afternoon “Mountain Spirit”, Minnfford Station, David Lloyd George on the afternoon Vintage Train, and Linda on “The Quarryman” returning to Blaenau.
After finishing up on the railway chasing trains, we had dinner plans at The Australia, the Purple Moose Brewery pub. We had made reservations, which I recommend, only because I find that pub meals can be hit or miss in small places in the UK if you don’t have one. We didn’t have an issue on Monday at Spooner’s, but we had hiccups in other places on our trip getting meals without reservations. We would return to Spooner’s on Wednesday morning for another trackside breakfast before continuing on with our tour of Wales. We highly recommend the Baps at Breakfast. Super Value and super delicious.
Not a bad view at all from our hotel across the street from the station.
While it is nothing fancy, the Premier Inn across the road offers everything we needed. Decent price, clean room, comfortable bed, good shower, and that view, looking out the window to see trains we were missing and all that was going on at Porthmadog. My kinda accommodations.
Having ridden the Ffestiniog, and enjoyed the hospitality of all we met in our Porthmadog days, we will 100% be back to also do the Welsh Highland Railway someday as well. Maybe won’t be soon, but we will absolutely return someday. Its hard to argue against anything the railway is doing based on our experience. They may not be catering specifically to enthusiasts, but to tourists and people on a day out, but they are doing so much, and based on my experience doing it so well, its hard to argue not to go, and I would suggest to anyone going to Wales on a railway adventure, that they are must visits.
The end, of a really good couple of days, but not our trip!
Ahhh, I did a layout thing. While I am deep in writing posts about my UK adventures, I am also now preparing for an Operating Session this weekend when a friend from away is visiting us in Toronto. I am super excited for them to see the layout, as the last time they were here, I had them stashed beneath the layout working on the wiring bus and drop feeders…before scenery or running trains where a thing.
In starting to get set, I was re-setting cars for the switch lists I have prepared, and I realized that the Gillett factory doesn’t give any sense as to where cars are to be spotted to align with the non-existent doors on the foam core stand in building. To solve this in the short term, I used a white chalkboard pen I have in the workshop for marking things temporarily, and drew on some marks and door numbers onto the styrene footing for a future structure when I build it. This at least will give operators a target for when they are switching at the moment.
Quickly marking some car spots with a chalk pen, now the operators have some idea of where cars should be spotted to make the loading easy.
This was a five minute task, but its one that will make operators lives easier. In due course I will I think cut some vinyls and apply them to the foundation so that the marking is more permanent. Doing this also made me notice another area desperately in need of dusting. We’ll see if it gets dusted or not before Sunday evening!
The newest steam locomotive I saw on my travels this year, Ffestiniog Railway Double Fairlie Number 8, “James Spooner”, completed 2023 at Boston Lodge works on the railway. Seen here rounding the curve across the A4085 road having departed Penrhyn station bound for Blaenau Ffestiniog with the afternoon “Mountain Spirit”. The double fairlies are fascinating little locomotives, actually two locomotives in one, with two 0-4-0 locomotives joined by a central cab, it means the locomotive is always able to work forwards in a sense up and down the line, without needing to be turned. The pictures below give a better sense of the deep purple paint scheme she carries.
Watch for a full trip write-up on my visit to the Ffestiniog tomorrow or Thursday when I can finish it.
The Talyllyn Railway in Tywyn on the mid-Wales coast has been a going concern since 1865, opened to carry slate from the quarries at Bryn Eglwys to Tywyn. It was also the first narrow gauge railway authorized by an act of parliament to carry passengers using steam haulage. The railroad operated as a private concern until 1951, when it was taken over by volunteers, becoming the first railway to be operated by volunteers, and launching an era that would eventually spread across the narrow gauge railways of Wales, and to standard gauge preservation across the UK. It all started at an unassuming 7.25 mile line in Wales. While I had never been before, I have built a model of the lines namesake locomotive “Talyllyn” a number of years ago now, so it has been very high on the list of railways I have wanted to visit for many years.
Tywyn Wharf Station and No.3 “Sir Haydn” on a rainy Monday in April as we arrive at the Talyllyn and get set to go for a trip up the line.
As the starting point of a movement, The Talyllyn has been high on my list of places to visit for a long time. In our trip planning, I knew we would be past it on our Monday drive from Swansea to Porthmadog along the Welsh coast. I didn’t know if our timing would work to actually go for ride. My goals were simple, to visit, see one of the service trains running, and visit the shop. Going for a ride was going to be a bonus and happen only if timing worked out. Our day having started with some cross country driving on…what are generously described as roads (note to self, don’t trust Google Directions in Wales), with stops in Cardigan and Aberyswyth along the way, we arrived in Tywyn about half an hour before the last departure of the day, in steady rain. After a chat, we of course decided that we were going to go for a ride, as its not like we were going to do anything else in the rain. We got settled into one of the coaches, and ready for the ride. Shortly after we departed Tywyn Wharf, mother nature cooperated and the rain stopped and it started to get much nicer, giving us great views on our trip up and down. At the mid-route stop at Abergynolwyn we got more pictures, and snacks from the station buffet. At Nant Gwernol, the opportunity to quickly run up the hillside path offered a chance to get a shot of Sir Haydn pulling forward to run around the train.
Passing the other service train, running around at Nant Gewrnol and safety instructions in Welsh and English.
On the return run down the hill, stops were made at each station to collect staff (no buffet staff were left behind…), and for the staff to re-provision the washrooms and lock up the intermediate stations and halts. At Brynglas on our way down we met an unexpected extra service, Loco 7 Tom Rolt that had hauled the other service was on its way back up with a Drivers Experience Train.
This of course, was a short visit. I would love to come back for a gala or major event to see more of the fleet in steam, and have the time to get off-train and do some further exploration of the surrounding countryside and do some linesiding photography. Of course, you can’t have everything, and going from just a visit to a trip was a real bonus for the vacation to me. Of probably more relevance to this blog, I picked up two kits at the railway store, of Coaches 9 & 10, and of Locomotive 2, “Dolgoch” to add to my Talyllyn and narrow gauge display board. Something to look forward to down the road when I assemble the appropriate other bits and pieces like decals to build and finish the kits.
And on we go with our 2024 trip around the UK. After starting off with a stop on the south coast of England at the Swanage Railway, it was north into Wales for a trip around the coasts. On our second day, we arrived in Aberystwyth around lunch time. After one of our hatchback picnics by the Castle and the Irish Sea, we went into the City to the Vale of Rheidol Railway. I knew our timing was such that we would not be able to ride, but they have just opened up a brand new museum in the former engine shed, and I’ve heard/read a lot about it in the past couple of months as exhibits have been moved in and its opened up. So if we can’t ride, we can at least tick off some locomotives I’ve never seen before.
This would be, my first visit to a narrow gauge railway, even though we didn’t ride it. All my other visits to the UK, including my trip to Wales in 2009 were to full sized railways. The only exposure to narrow gauge I have had is a short line laid down in the yard at Carrog on the Llangollen as part of a gala event in 2009. So seeing the narrow gauge equipment up close for the first time in its natural environment was an interesting experience as well.
Strangely though, despite this being a narrow gauge museum on a narrow gauge railway, one of the star exhibits for its first couple of years is going to be a standard gauge steam locomotive, GWR 9017, a “DukeDog” which was once based in Aberysthwyth and synonymous with the “Cambrian Coast” lines of the west coast of Wales. The locomotive hasn’t been “home” since before it was retired in 1960. I first saw it in September 2004 at its long time home on the Bluebell Railway shortly after its restoration to steam in 2003. I then saw her again in GWR green on the Severn Valley in 2008, and on the Llangollen in 2009 on my previous visit to Wales where she was freshly repainted into the BR Black she still carries.
DukeDog 9017 in 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2024. A regular friend in my UK travels.
So, back to the new museum. The VoR has just finished renovating the former engine shed into a museum, and it is gorgeous. While many aspects of the engine house past are gone, the changes including large window wall, new floors, new ceiling have created a warm and attractive space to display rolling stock with lots of natural light, even on a somewhat overcast day. It is also cleverly designed to operate without staff. The admission tickets have a QR code on them, and you scan them by the entry door, if your code is valid, the doors open. This is a clever way to restrict access recognizing that many museums face the challenge of insufficient volunteers to keep everything open and allow access. This was the first time I’ve seen this kind of system in use, but I’m sure it won’t be the last.
Walking up to and entering the “new” museum building, which is the “old” engine shed of the Vale of Rheidol. Love the end cut wood floor of replaceable blocks that will soak in oil drips.
There are so many little things to like about how this space has been done. There are three roads in the building, one of which is both narrow and standard gauge for about 2/3 of the building. For now that allows for 9017, but one assumes after she goes back to her preservation home at the Bluebell Railway in the future, another ex-Cambrian GWR locomotive could take its place to bridge the narrow gauge and standard gauge history of the place, as the standard gauge railway exists next to the preserved narrow gauge railway to to this day. The floor is also apparently a style of heritage floor I’ve never seen before. It is loose fitted blocks of what looks to be about a 2×4 but on end, so the grain is showing. This apparently was used in workshops as it naturally soaks up fluid spills, and is easy to replace when blocks became saturated. I’ve never seen it before, but its both attractive and functional it seems.
Selection of the collection inside the museum. My understanding is locomotives will come and go and more are to be added.
The rolling stock on display as of April 9, 2024:
Arnold Jung 0-6-2WT=T 1261 “Graf Schwerin-Lowitz
Hanomag 2-6-2+2-6-2 NG/G13 Garratt 60 Drakensberg
GWR 2-6-2T 1213 “Prince of Wales
GWR(BR) 4-4-0 9017 “Earl of Berkeley”
Hunslet 0-4-0ST 605 Margaret
Kerr, Stuart 0-4-0ST 3114 Wren
Horlock 0-4-0 “Fire Queen”
Padarn Railway Directors Saloon
Baldwin 4-6-0PT 10-12-D 590 *
England 0-4-0ST+T 4 “Palmerston” *
Ford Model T rail inspection vehicle
Isle of Man Railway carriage F68
GWR Cattle Wagon 38089
* I understand that 590 and Palmerston have already moved since I was there from the museum to the workshops for operational maintenance to run on the railway and been replaced.
I have, historically overlooked the Vale of Rheidol and its oddball history where at one time it was still a part of British Railways, where their steam tank locomotives ran in Rail Blue with Arrows of Indecision. In full honesty, that was a mistake on my part having now visited and seen what they are capable of achieving. I will definitely be back, and the next time we are doing narrow gauge in Wales, making a point of staying in Aberystwyth and riding the railway will be on the to-do list.
Musings on my Model Railroading Addiction 