I visited the Welsh Highland Railway for the first time in 2009. I was deeply impressed, not only by the unique feat of reviving the railway after eighty years, but also by the stunning trainride to then Hafod-y-Llyn. It really was a Sleeping Beauty! Now the line was completed I wanted to do te ride again. I even managed to convince my wife to come along as the ride itself is so beautiful that it even makes it bearable having your husband jumping all over the place gibbering about steam, Garratts, trains....
1
2 We found our 10:00 train in Caernarfon, freshly arrived from its night lair in Dinas. I built a model of no 87 and I could see a few detail differences with no 143 here. For one the grease pump on the footplate has five brass tubes and draws its supply from a large container between the sandboxes.
3
4 The loco uncoupled and ran round. At the left of the photo a tower of Caernarfon Castle
5 Taking water
6
7 Man and wife shall not be separated...by glass
8 The tenfold grease pump in more detail
9 After taking water 143 moved to set itself in front of the train
10
11
12
13 We're of the same age. I was also "built" in 1958
14 Another difference with no 87. The steam pipes run straight down.
15 Ready to run
16
17
18 Off we went, here passing Dinas shed. The weather was fine, variably sunny and not too cold.
19 After Dinas the line turns inland and trough very scenic grasslands
20 Taking water at Waunfawr
21
22
23
24
25 Water streaks are always a grateful object to picture
26 Soon after Waunfawr the mountains started closing in. That's were the real hard work started.
27 I can still hear the Garratt beat reverberating in the countryside, getting in and out of sync.
28 In the distance we could get a view on the Snowdon Mountain Railway's train getting to the summit
29 A glorious panorama
30 Rhyd Ddu in the Ddistance
31
32 A look back on Llyn Cwellyn
33
34
35 In the last curves before Rhyd Ddu
36 A crossing train with the same locomotive??
37 No, at Rhyd Ddu I was terribly disappointed to hear that motive power would be changed. The Garratt locomotive of the return train from Porthmadog had broken down so that train was brought up to Rhyd Ddu by a conventional steam locomotive and a diesel locomotive. As this pair was too weak to bring their train safely down the steep gradients to Caernarfon, the motive power swapped trains and took our train to Porthmadog with our Garratt returning to Caernarfon. I was more or less pissed off.
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46 Meanwhile "our" Garratt was disappearing in the distance
47
48 An on we went down towards Beddgelert
49 I'had never imagined I would ever be doing this behind a stinkin' diesel. In the loops before Forest station
50 Crossing the bridge and entering the Aberglaslyn Gorge
51
52 running with the train....
53 The Aberglaslyn Gorge is great to walk!! Do it, if you happen to be there.
54
55 After the gorge we rode into the plains
56 When we reached Pont Croesor, today's end of the ride, this train would not venture into Porthmadog, I was relieved to see another Garratt ready. It was "my" no 87 that I modeled. Now take a look and see how different the grease pump arrangement is. No 87 was hte particular lcomotiv that broke down this morning, as I heard at the station. Now, it would be taking our train back to Caernarfon. So in the end the morning breakdown proved to be a lucky strike: I had four different locomotives in front of my train instead of one, two of which were Garratts!
57
58 By now the clouds that had been gathering since exiting the Aberglaslyn pass started unloading their unwanted cargo
59
60
61
62
63 Reentering the Aberglaslyn pass
64
65
66 Beddgelert
67
68
69
70 The piping I can dream after I built the model
71
72
73 The very different arrangement of the live steam pipe of no 87