Steam & Excursion > The Snowdonian

Mel Finzer from Chicago and I rode this year's Snowdonian - 80 miles of 2' gauge steam haulage over the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways in NW Wales. We arrived around Friday lunchtime, leaving mid afternoon on Sunday, riding the train itself on Saturday.

Our first sight of steam was Double Fairlie 0-4+4-0 Merddin Emrys (Boston Lodge 1877) on the first train of the day from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog passing the gradient post which marks the summit of the railway behind the Ffestiniog Pumped Storage HEP Station. This stretch of line was built in the 1970s & 80s to replace the original formation which had been lost when the Ffestiniog Pumped Storage HEP scheme was given the go ahead.

Later that afternoon new build replica Manning, Wardle 2-6-2T Lyd (Boston Lodge 2010) was in Porthmadog Harbour station surrounded by admirers, whilst at Boston Lodge works Merddin Emrys was serviced ready for its duties on Saturday

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On the day itself the motive power for the first leg from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog and back were 0-4-4T Single Fairlie Taliesin and Lyd, who disgraced herself with valve gear problem and had to be removed from the train.

But before then here's the train on the spiral at Dduallt, the only spiral on a railway in the British Isles.

At Blaenau Ffestiniog, having been fed and watered, the locos are recoupled to the 10 car train for the journey back to Porthmadog. The builders plate on Taliesin says that it was rebuilt at Boston Lodge in 1999. In reality very little of the original was left, it is really a brand new engine.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/15 11:48 by 86235.

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After dropping Lyd in the siding at Rhiw Goch Taliesin carried on alone, giving way to the motive power for the Welsh Highland sector at Boston Lodge. From there to Caernarfon and back to Porthmadog we were to be triple headed - Prince (George England 1863) leading Blanche and Linda (both Hunslet 1893). Here they are crossing the Britannia Bridge just outside Porthmadog Harbour station before entering Welsh Highland trackage.

On board the patrons were thoroughly enjoying themselves - there were gifts for all passengers and at seat catering.

Lunch was taken at Beddgelert - in the Royal Goat Hotel - whilst Blanche and her partners rested. Blanche and Linda were originally 0-4-0T built for the Penrhyn Quarry Railway and acquired by the Ffestiniog in the 1960s. They have been substantially rebuilt since, with a leading pony truck, tender and, in Blanche's case piston valve cylinders and a superheated boiler. 

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I left the train at Beddgelert as the weather was just too good not to get some lineside pictures - here's the Snowdonian on the 2% grade as it climbs out of Beddgelert via two horseshoe curves.

Running a little late is the afternoon service train from Caernarfon to Porthmadog behind ex-South African Railway NGG16 2-6-2+2-6-2 Beyer Garratt 138 (Beyer Peacock 1958)

And finally, a shot from Sunday morning and it is 138 again on the morning Porthmadog to Caernarfon leaving Rhyd Ddu (the summit station) and starting the long descent towards Caernarfon.

As you can see we were blessed with some pretty amazing weather for N W Wales.

There are some more pictures of the weekend here 
http://nick86235.smugmug.com/Trains/2015/Snowdonian-1015/
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/15 14:22 by 86235.

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Very nice.  My wife and I visited these lines for the first time in our lives in August, 2014.  We thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

Very nice.  Thanks for sharing.

It's enjoyable to read the names of the places to which you traveled.  In particular, I like Blaenau Ffestiniog and Porthmadog.

Thanks, I like the Welsh place names too, just don't like trying to pronounce them.

I was curious about the double fairlie, it seems it is basically two 0-4-0s back to back, is there one throttle controlling both engines, linked somehow? One set of brake controls or two? Can someone enlighten me as to how they operate in conjunction?

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Love your photos, that looks like a beautiful place to watch and ride trains. Like the variety of engines, hopefully I can get there some day.

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Finderskeepers Wrote:
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> I was curious about the double fairlie, it seems
> it is basically two 0-4-0s back to back, is there
> one throttle controlling both engines, linked
> somehow? One set of brake controls or two? Can
> someone enlighten me as to how they operate in
> conjunction?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairlie_locomotive
 

atsf121 Wrote:
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> Love your photos, that looks like a beautiful
> place to watch and ride trains. 

Thanks, yes it is but the sun doesn't always shine like it did this weekend :-)