the ffestiniog railway

prince's boiler ticket expired. he's on rebuild now. welsh pony is coming along, and Lyd has been completed, but not added to the ffestinog loco roster as of yet

a group of ffestininog vollenteers aquired a chinese 0-8-0. the "dahuichang 4" may be regauged for opperation on the ffestiniog railway.

Prince is on static display at the Severn Valley Railway, rebuild won't start until next Spring at the earliest. Welsh Pony is to be assessed to put a price tag on restoration before an appeal is launched. The Chinese loco won't see action for ten years. The team behind it have built a new shed specifically for the restoration work at Boston Lodge Works.

Lyd has already run service trains on both the FR and WHR and is taking a tracklayers' special over the Cross Town Link in Porthmadog to Rhyd Ddu and back this Sunday. The final section of the WHR opens officially on April 20, but there is a week of preview trains running the whole way from Caernarfon to Porthmadog starting on February 20.

Lyd has also visited and hauled passenger services on the Lynton & Barnstaple and Launceston railways. It is exceeding all expectations and we plan to try it with 12 cars up the FR (the normal service limit for a Double Fairlie). It is likely to end up with a ten car rating on the FR and five on the WHR (which is twice as steep).

Pix of Lyd can be found here:
http://www.festrail.co.uk/cgi-bin/emAlb ... otives/Lyd

Cheers
Andrew.

well, i've known that linda is being rebuilt, and that work is progressing of Beyer Garrett #143, but did anyone know that blanche is down for repairs? i only heard a few days ago.

End of season maintenance. It's a very hard working - and hard worked - loco.

AndrewT wrote:End of season maintenance. It's a very hard working - and hard worked - loco.

true, it does look like blanche is heavily used. so i guess that it make sense

well, my dad will need somthing to do once he is finished dealing with getting his new pimped out work truck (has a plow, lift gate, utility body, lift kit, and i get to choose where the logo's go), i'll see what he thinks about the busta idea.

blanche is now back in traffic

I've always admired the scenery and the fact you can have quite a nice long return journey from Porthmadog to Blaenau and make a day of it. We've got off before now at Ddaullt and walked back along the forest paths and public footpaths to get nice train photos There is some great museums, exhibits and it is a really nice ride, and thoroughly recommended.

However, although I admire all volunteer/proffessional run railways [and I am a signalman/tower operator for my job of the last 16 yrs] I have the same experience with the FR as someone related above about the VoR. Mainly this is staff who hardly want to speak the time of day, and believe me I do appreciate that there is a lot of work involved, not just turning up and @helping out@ for a couple of hours. I've never yet spoken to a member of the engine crew on the FR who looked like they could be bothered to speak to a member of the public.

Perhaps they are awestruck by the beauty of the scenery but personally this detracts from my visit. I don't say its general, perhaps I look like a busybody, who knows. It doesn't stop me from visiting, but I've found the staff at many steam railways to be the same in the last 2 or 3 years. At one time I thought about volunteering again at a railwya but this put me off in a way. it made me wonder whether H&S, CRB's and other legal mumbo jumbo have made the staff tighter and more proffessional in their outlook? Not necassarily a bad thing of course.

Please note I am not "having a go" but observing whaty I've experiencced each time. Maybe if I get time this weekend after a jolly on the Llangollen I'll make it down to the FR. Good luck with the summer season. One thing I never thought I would see is a loco crossing the bridge in Porthmadog along the road :D

Linda has entered testing. Should re-enter traffic soon.