Great pictures, thank you John. Why are old railways so appealing? Up in Cumbria last year, my friends and I took a little miniature railway journey and it was wonderful.
The Welsh Highland Railway
Diolch, Gaynor and Ceri:
I was fascinated by this railway as it was a footpath with no tracks and no sleepers when we used to stay in Beddgelert in the 1950s: everything had been torn up for salvage as part of the war effort. I used to dream of it being a railway again. I was amazed and fascinated when the train pulled into Caernarfon to find that it was hauled by a doubly-articulated mini Beyer-Garratt loco - I lived in Zambia from 1966-1972 and used to watch the full-scale ones hauling 80 80-ton wagons of coal, TNT, etc. up to the mines in Kitwe. I have a lovely picture of onecrossing the bridge atVic Falls.
The bike in the picture was rented in Manchester and I used it to do an 800 miles fully-loaded tour around the IoM (Ynys Manaw), Ireland and North Wales in July, ending with a week at the Eisteddfod in Wrexham. The best day of the whole trip started inCaernarfon, from where I took the early train to Beddgelert,where Igot on the bike and cycled up Nant Gwynant to Pen-y-Pass, stopping off at Sygun Copper Mine for a couple of hours on the way (I'm a connoisseur of old copper mines!), and then took the Miner's Path up to the summit of Snowdon, arriving at 6.00 pm after a hard 2 1/4 hour push. My legs were a bit jelly-like so I took the Snowdon Railway down to Llanberis, and from there a very kind family gave me a lift back to the Youth Hostel at Pen-y-Pass, where I had left the bike. Ended up camping in a little campground two miles short of Capel Curig.
The whole day was a wonderful, wonderful experience. There are more photos on my Facebook page - e-mail me if you are interested.
Great idea Gaynor....diolch for posting
I've added a few links below:-
http://www.welshhighlandrailway.net/
http://www.whrsoc.org.uk/WHRProject.html
Welsh Highland Railway YouTube Videos
| Description | English: K1, The first Garratt locomotive to be built, preserved in use on the Welsh Highland Railway, on passenger train entering en:Snowdon Ranger railway station on 19 October 2007. |
|---|---|
| Date | 2007-10-20 (original upload date) |
| Source | Transferred from en.wikipedia ; Transfer was stated to be made by User:Quatro Valvole . |
| Author | Original uploader was NoelWalley at en.wikipedia |
Anyone visiting Wales this year might like to add the Welsh Highland Railway to their itinerary. It's a 25 mile journey from Caernarfon via Beddgelert (readers of The Carmarthen Underground might glimpse the tea plantations there!). Eventually, it will terminate at Porthmadog but even without that it promises to be a spectacular journey. Information can be found on the Festrail website.
updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 12/14/15 06:17:48PM
