A different train of thought .

[Chuffer]

I have many happy memories too going back to holidays in Barmouth in 1957 !!! Have been coming back here ever since and remember well a trip on the Ffestiniog Railway in the early 60`s when it only ran as far as Tan - y - Bwlch . We are currently staying in an isolated cottage up in the hills above Dolgellau . Total peace and quiet , pure bliss . Stunning views straight from the back door , even has it`s wild flower meadow . Sunsets have been fabulous . ( a bit poetic license with the digital camera ! )

 

[Roscobbc]

We toured Wales in my uncle Davids ex police Wolseley 6/80 towing a
4 berth caravan. Myself, two younger sisters and my dad with uncle driving. Remember him complaining about the fuel consumption towing the 'van - 15/16 mpg as I recall. Unfortunately there just were issues with Mum's weight in the back of the car causing the rear end to bottom-out and she unfortunately had to travel in the caravan behind the rear wheels to balance things up........
I recall walking miles up in to the base of the mountains, just me and my uncle, drinking ice cold water from surface streams, shooting his .22 rimfire rifle at rocks on the other side of a lake and finally catching a trout, grilling it and eating it later back at the camp site........we stayed at a couple of sites in Wales, but the longest at Dyffryn. I seem to recall the RAF station with the drones is now called RAF Valley - it was named something else back then.

 

[Chuffer]

Happy days ! You don`t get fun times like that anymore and someone would be bound to report you for shooting up the mountainside !!
We were on Shell Island otherwise known as Mochras last Sunday . That is in the Dyffryn Ardudwy area . We drove past the old airfield that was once the Royal Aerospace Establishment , Llanbedr to get there . Many years ago it was an RAF Gunnery Training Base with drones flown over the sea for target practice . It is now home to the North Wales Flying School . RAF Valley is on Anglesey by the way. It is the RAF Training Base and also home to Mountain Rescue Helicopters .

 

[Chuffer]

Spot the difference 35 years between these two photos too . Couldn`t find a train to photograh in the shot I took the other day , but I am on the footplate of Hinton Manor crossing Barmouth Bridge in the other shot .Top

 

[CaptainK]

On my recent Welsh holiday, we stayed at Blaenau Ffestiniog, so saw the trains a lot. Despite the photos, we didn't get to ride on all of them due to time etc. But we did go to see a lot of them, and wanted to go on the one going up to Devil's Bridge (Rheidol Railway), but alas we couldn't get tickets. I wanted to get a photos of the trains when we were visiting the bridge, but alas it left the station as we were driving by looking for a spot to park. They don't run that often, so didn't see another despite staying there a while.

The Britannia model is a working "ride on" model, and looks superb. The wife are I are both into steam engines, so love seeing them and riding on heritage trains etc. I guess I was brought up right with steam courtesy of my grandparents, and she used to live around the corner from the West Somerset Railway (Bishops Lydeard end). We still live near there now.

 

[phild]

Ah, this rekindles childhood memories as I was borne and raised not far from Lake Vyrnwy. I can remember the Welshpool & Llanfair line when it was a commercial service when it ran, on its narrow gauge rails, through the streets of Welshpool! Health and safety, pah!!!

https://wllr.org.uk/

 

[Roscobbc]

My father (together with my mother) toured Wales on bikes immediately post WW2 several times and fell in love with the area. It reminds me a little of the Isle of Man.......not in the variety of scenery (on the Isle of Man that is) but in the space of a half hour drive or so (on a good day) you can see a totally different 'vista' - one minute mountains, the next a beautiful beach, a wonderful lake/reservior view or woodland setting. Some years after my fathers death I took my mother on a weeks holiday to Wales staying at Portmadoc and touring in a 1965 Ford Galaxie........that was tricky on some of those single track stone walled lanes!

 

[Chuffer]

My father (together with my mother) toured Wales on bikes immediately post WW2 several times and fell in love with the area. It reminds me a little of the Isle of Man.......not in the variety of scenery (on the Isle of Man that is) but in the space of a half hour drive or so (on a good day) you can see a totally different 'vista' - one minute mountains, the next a beautiful beach, a wonderful lake/reservior view or woodland setting. Some years after my fathers death I took my mother on a weeks holiday to Wales staying at Portmadoc and touring in a 1965 Ford Galaxie........that was tricky on some of those single track stone walled lanes!

A Galaxie in Wales !! That`s about half the size of North Wales . I share your sentiments about how wonderful Wales is .

 

[Chuffer]

Ah, this rekindles childhood memories as I was borne and raised not far from Lake Vyrnwy. I can remember the Welshpool & Llanfair line when it was a commercial service when it ran, on its narrow gauge rails, through the streets of Welshpool! Health and safety, pah!!!

https://wllr.org.uk/

Now that is a memory to cherish ! I have never met anyone who has first hand experience of the Llanfair & Welshpool Railway in its old working days but have several books with photos from that era . Hard to believe that British Railways acquired it and actually kept it running after nationalisation for afew years . Same as with the Vale of Rheidol Railway too . Lovely area Lake Vyrnwy , know it well .

 

[phild]

Now that is a memory to cherish ! I have never met anyone who has first hand experience of the Llanfair & Welshpool Railway in its old working days but have several books with photos from that era . Hard to believe that British Railways acquired it and actually kept it running after nationalisation for afew years . Same as with the Vale of Rheidol Railway too . Lovely area Lake Vyrnwy , know it well .

As a child it was a treat to be taken to the goods yard at Welshpool (clutching my Ian Allen books) and I vividly recall a turntable for the full sized trains, all long gone now. My other memory was the Llanfair & Welshpool narrow gauge setting off from the goods yard and running right through Welshpool town via Back Lane and Raven Square. In those days there was no roundabout at Raven Square and my aunt lived a couple of houses down from the Raven Pub. It was only goods then and now, with the Welshpool terminus at Raven Square, its tourists only.

 

[Chuffer]

Continuing the happy childhood memories Phild , I have spent many a happy hour by the lineside at Northampton Locomotive shed in the late 50`s and early 60`s . I had a Great Aunt that lived in the back to back terraced houses opposite the shed just out of sight to the right of the coaling tower and ash handling tower in the photograph . I used to stay with her for a week every school summer holidays and many weekends too . I would train spot all day long and got to know some of the drivers and fireman so I could wander arround the shed amongst all the locos at will . Happy days sitting on the lineside fence clutching my Ian Allen book and sucking on a Jublie bought from the local corner shop . I was at the shed the day it closed in 1966 when the last three locos all blasted off together with their whistles screaming a final fairwell . A very sad day . The site of the engine shed is now a bus depot and all the terraced houses demolished and now an industrial estate ! Such is progress .

 

[teamzr1]

Thought you'd like these oldies

Steam engines of the USA and more

1 1/2 hours of compilation, which features up to 51 different steam locomotives!

 

[Chuffer]

Great video footage , so sad to see rusting hulks that probably do not get restored . Loved all the US locos , especially the two locos hauling a train round a spiral to gain height in the mountains . US locos are huge compaired to British locos . I chanced to find the Conway Scenic Rail Road in New Hampshire whilst on a road trip on New England in the Fall and got chatting to the crew . The loco was only a shunting loco ( Switcher in US speak) but was huge compaired the loco 34053 that I had been driving in the UK only the week before , and that was one of our largest express locomotives !!
The Glory of Steam sure brought back many memories as it featured several locos I have worked on as either a Fireman or a Driver . Some of the filming was on the Severn Valley Railway that I worked on for 31 years . One particular shot 24 minutes into the video shows Great Western Railway tank loco number 4566 departing southbound from Highley Station towards Kidderminster . That was the loco that I passed my Firemans exam on in 1988 . Happy days .

 

[CaptainK]

I loved that scale railway video with the ride on steam engine. That is a huge layout they have there and the attention to detail with all the bridges, tunnels, stations etc was impressive. I'd love to have a go on that, or better still be involved in the running of it.

 

[CaptainK]

Ok then, a bit of a quiz for you all. What's "wrong" with this locomotive?

 

[Chuffer]

The livery is wrong - 5305 was an LMS Stanier Class 5 and they were all black , not green except for the few given experimental Apple Green livery after Britsh Railways was formed in 1948 to gauge public opinion . Thankfully it didn`t last long . As number 5305 it was in LMS black livery with LMS on gold Sans Serif script on the tender . After Nationalisation of the railways in 1948 it was renumbered 45305 and carried the words `British Railways` on the tender . That was superceded by the `Lion on Bike` emblem as it got called in 1949 . Then a revised emblem was launched in 1956 which was a lion holding a wheel sitting over a crown and the words British Railways either side of the lion in the Totem emblem style .
The boiler fittings are wrong - It should not have a copper capped chimney or copper dome cover . To be truely authentic the boiler should have a boiler feed cover on the second boiler ring and the dome on the second boiler ring and should be flat topped not completely rounded . We do people go to so much effort and expense to build these fantastic large scale model locos and then spoil them with blatent detail faults !! It `s like fitting rubber bumpers on a C2 Corvette .
See photo of the genuine article . I am a member of the 5305 Locomotive Association and may well be working on its overhaul at Loughborough on Friday .

 

[Chuffer]

PS . It was never named in LMS or BR days so ignore the `Alderman Draper ` name plate . He was the guy who bought it and saved it from the scrap yard in 1968 and restored it to full working order and one of the best paint jobs in loco preservation in my opinion . Our association is now custodians of it and wil be running it on the national railway network after overhaul is completed . If we can still get any coal that is !!

 

[CaptainK]

Blimey Chuffer, that's a very detailed post

I was just gonna go with (spoiler: technical words used ahead ):

1. The linky bit from the cylinders to the wheels doesn't exist.
2. The linky bit from the middle wheel to the end wheel doesn't exist.
3. Its not actually steam - its battery powered (might explain why its painted green and not black )
4. That isn't coal in its tender.
5. The guy driving it was a bit grumpy and wasn't interested in talking about the model (or anything really) other than to say its electric, and to take your money.

So then Chuffer, when is the first full size steam loco electric conversion gonna happen? That'll keep the greenies happy.

 

[Chuffer]

Electric cars , now electric steam locos ! Aaaaaaaaaaaaah !!! What ever next . Is nothing sacred ?? I didn`t spot the missing coupling rods between centre and trailing driving wheels as photo was a bit dark .
As for the first full size electric steam loco , it has already happened in a manner of speaking . This loco was built in glass fibre ( Corvette link here ) and was built in the UK and styled on the British Railways ` Britannia ` Class Pacific and then given detail alterations to give a more French / European outline for the latest Mission Impossible movie starring Tom Cruise . It had diesel electric propulsion in the tender and a steam generator in the boiler to make it look realistic . It was tested in secret on the Great Central Railway at Loughborough and then quickly shipped out for some initial film scenes shot on the North York Moors Railway . Then it went to a disused quary in Derbyshire for filming the final scenes of it being destroyed as it crossed a railway viaduct that was blown up . They should that to all EV`s

 

[CaptainK]

That's a shame they build all that just to destroy it. Hey hum, like you said probably for the best as the greenies really wouldn't like it being diesel AND having a steam generator