Welshpool Santa specials, with snow.....

Made it across to Llanfair yesterday, it will be impossible today. Lots of snow for the Santa trains:

Climbing into Cyfronydd:



Running round:


Cyfronydd:




Crossing the Banwy:




Approaching Heniarth:




Cheers,

Alan

 

Very nice to look at, not so nice to be out in!!

 

Wonder how many made it today - the road from Shrewsbury has been reported closed all day.

 

It wasn't too bad yesterday, a decent pair of wellies with thick woolen socks helped with the feet, a proper hat and mittens kept the other extremities okay. There was no wind, so little wind-chill to create those painful, mittens off moments.

However, all credit to all of the W & L crews and members out in the cold all day yesterday and today to put on a splendid show for all of the families that attended. Today would have been a different matter; about a foot of snow has fallen, it was impossible for me to get over to Llanfair - it's only 12 miles - and many the W & L members would have struggled to get there too, plus of course, many of the passengers would have stayed at home. I do hope that they managed to run some of the scheduled trains.

Cheers,

Alan

 

Nice, I thought about Llanfair yesterday as being closer than SVR ('cos I was feeling lazy), but wasn't convinced there'd be any snow there! (and I'm not sure how far they run in December either)

On Friday whilst Shrewsbury was grinding to a halt, over in Newtown the sun was out with no snow on the ground at all. Driving home I didn't meet anything until Westbury really, and the road remained fine all the way to Shrewsbury bypass - where it was hell on wheels on all roads with all but stationary traffic, took over an hour to get 3 miles round town against less than that for the previous 30! <sigh>.

Popped out in the series Landy earlier, no problems on the snow bound estate roads, and the more 'main' roads were just slushy - not much other traffic around though. With both Telford and 'Valley reporting no services today there didn't seem much point going off with camera.

 

Hello Ian,

Heard about the mayhem around Shrewsbury, some snow falls and that's the end of the World...... The Met weather forecasts are so accurate these days, you could almost swear that they are making the weather themselves, so we can't say that we weren't warned.

Every year, I am desperate to get some snow photos, but as we have seen, it can also destroy any chances of actually getting to the desired subject!! As for the W & L, they only run the Santa trains from Llanfair to Cyfronydd, but at least you can make something of it, particularly if it has snowed. I certainly wanted to return today, for the chance of a "blue hour" in the snow, I haven't had one of those since going to China in 2005 and I've been waiting for a U.K. "blue hour" for over 30 years, heaven knows when I'll get another opportunity.....

All the best,

Alan

 

Some of the carriage windows are open!!

 

To be fair, Shrewsbury almost never has any snow worth talking about - despite what the forecasters say. It can be fairly deep a couple of miles out of town, but S'Bury itself seems immune. It'll hit the wrekin and dump on Telford, but be totally clear 12 miles away in Shrewsbury. The Stretton Hills will cop it, but Shrewsbury's clear.... and even when it does get a bit of snow the roads are all gritted and totally clear so transport wise it's a non-issue.

On Friday it was nose to tail on the bypass and stationary heading towards the hospital as well. I sat crawling and bumping over the icy lumps on the bypass before heading towards the old A5 through Radbrook. It was nose to tail on the old A5 as well. On some of the hills the car was at the limit of grip on the icy snowy road. Needless to say I was much happier once I'd got home and could swap to landy I hear today there was a van/lorry had got intimate with a telegraph pole around Halfway House which had closed the Welshpool road.

A couple of years ago when there was some reasonable snow I went over to the Talyllyn to try and get some snowy photos. At times beyond Llanfair the road required a bit of care (pre-landy days) due to the snowy conditions. Blow me, but just after passing Llyn Talyllyn when you drop down into the valley all the white stuff totally vanished back to green fields. Grrr, the warmth of the coast I suppose! Lol.

 

Ain't that the truth, it's been snowing here since before 6 this morning and still is - I have at least a foot of snow on the garden, today's on top of what was left from Friday.
Lost count of the number of times people from Shrewsbury came into the office and said how nice the weather was until they got to Telford.
That's what I get for living 550 feet above sea level but at least I'll be fine when the polar icecaps melt

 

Yeah, I've been caught like that before as well - sunny and dry here, but went straight into 2 or 3" of the stuff at Wellington/Oakengates!

Still, we're making up for it this weekend. Just had a look - it has finally stopped snowing here, but it's been gently drifting down all day.

Some of the covering fell off when I went out earlier...

 

Are there any other pictures of steam in the snow in the last few days??

 

Quite a few SVR ones from Saturday before it all got a bit too much today. Not come across any others so far.

 

Hope this works



PH

 

That looks delightful

I wonder how cold it was in the coaches

 

Warm enough (steam heat)

PH

 

CVR Santa specials were running

 

Know if any pictures have emerged?

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

 

NVR ran too. Some shots of 34081 in the snow on our Facebook page and when uploaded, our website too.

 

Works a treat; in a similar vein, a railway in a valley not so far away:



Cheers,

Alan

 

There are some I have seen but are all on a closed FB site