European Railroad Discussion > Two of the price of one at Dduallt spiral.

Two trains for the price of one in this clip.  ​Double Fairlie 0-4-4-0 Merddin Emrys, climbs away from Dduallt Station around the UK's only spiral track while 0-4-0ST-T Palmerston can be seen arriving with a rake of 4 weel historic coaches.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/22 07:23 by Rattie.

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Very nice!  

I don't know Welsh geography. I looked it up.  

Ted in OR

https://www.openrailwaymap.org//mobile.php?style=standard&lat=52.96006552827343&lon=-3.968639373779297&zoom=16
https://opentopomap.org/#map=15/52.96101/-3.96847 
interesting -- it's on a knob on the top of the side of a valley -- most loops in North America are in wide spots in valley bottoms. 
https://www.openrailwaymap.org//mobile.php?style=standard&lat=52.95976824097011&lon=-3.968832492828369&zoom=16



 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/22 17:20 by gobbl3gook.

Now THAT'S something you don't see every day.  That's a great video!

The reason for the spiral is very straightforward, the original route of the Ffestiniog Railway above Dduallt was flooded beyond Moelwyn Tunnel by the Ffestiniog Pump Storage HEP scheme. The railway objected but heritage railways were given short shrift in the 1950s and their objections were ignored. In order to complete the restoration of the railway to Blaenau Ffestiniog, the upper terminus, the railway built, by mainly volunteer labour, a 2.5 mile new line - The Deviation - at a higher elevation (including a new Moelwyn Tunnel) and to reach that elevation they built the spiral. The deviation took 13 years to complete. It is one of the great feats of heritage railway civil engineering. 

https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/Deviation



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/22 10:25 by 86235.

Thanks for the clip of those locos doing their thing. Nice setting!

Thanks for the great story. You Brits continue to amaze me with things like that, the musems, operating steam on restored historic railroads and recreating historic steam locos from scratch. Bravo!

Victor B.

86235 Wrote:
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> The reason for the spiral is very straightforward,
> the original route of the Ffestiniog Railway above
> Dduallt was flooded beyond Moelwyn Tunnel by the
> Ffestiniog Pump Storage HEP scheme. The railway
> objected but heritage railways were given short
> shrift in the 1950s and their objections were
> ignored. In order to complete the restoration of
> the railway to Blaenau Ffestiniog, the upper
> terminus, the railway built, by mainly volunteer
> labour, a 2.5 mile new line - The Deviation - at a
> higher elevation (including a new Moelwyn Tunnel)
> and to reach that elevation they built the spiral.
> The deviation took 13 years to complete. It is one
> of the great feats of heritage railway civil
> engineering. 
>
> https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/Deviation



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/22 20:09 by wabash2800.

The new and old tunnels can be seen on openrailwaymap.org
https://www.openrailwaymap.org//mobile.php?style=standard&lat=52.96993947537008&lon=-3.9685320854187007&zoom=15
Very interesting, nice work to the heritage line folks!  

Ted in OR

This is the inside of the new Moelwyn Tunnel last October, we were there to dedicate the new tunnel portal.

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That truly is a fascinating story. Amazing that they were able to construct not only the new line, but that beautiful stonework portal.

I'm a former electric utility employee, so the pumped storage angle is of interest as well.

Those cars would make a 40 or 8 look big. Also how would you fire a 2 boiler engine?

Sam

 

Trainhand Wrote:
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> Those cars would make a 40 or 8 look big. Also how
> would you fire a 2 boiler engine?

Firebox doors are side by side. This is 0-4-4-0T "David Lloyd George".

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Here's a close up

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