Chester - Blaenau Ffestiniog: 3/08/19

Amazing photo Nigel

 

Wet roof tiles at Old Colwyn, The Great Orme disappearing into the haze and a nearly deserted beach - must be summer on the North Wales Coast



And this just forward of Nigel's shot hoping nobody else followed the red car that had just passed us .

Has a Jubilee been up the branch before ?

 

That Old Colwyn shot is very Giffordesque.

 

Just what I had in mind !

 

Never having been on the Conwy Valley Line, let alone by steam, this last minute opportunity courtesy of Transport for Wales was too good to miss. The main purpose of the trip was to celebrate the reopening of the line after four months or so. Various parties and dignitaries were assembled, speeches were made...... on the section of line running across the wetlands up to Llanwrst, it was clear what the damage must have been after Storm Gareth and the effort since is truly impressive. I can't think of another line quite like it for variety of scenery in such a short distance--- the estuary, the wetlands, the narrowing valley, and then out of the tunnel into the lunar landscape. Blaenau was looking a little better than I recall but still not a lot to do--- I went for a walk to Tan Y Grisiau and caught the Ffestiniog back.

From a loco performance perspective, well, it was a dry day until 6 pm, so an 8F and a Jubilee with nine was ample. 37 mins for the 17 miles from Llanwrst to Blaenau and the superb photo and video above tell the story. Plenty of grunt from the front end to achieve that! And a mention for the 32.5 miles from Colwyn Bay to Shotton in 38 mins in the evening.

One thing about steam tours is that quite often there is not much time to have a look at the locos and have a chat. With an hour each way at Llandudno Jct, that was not the case here, and thanks to the crews which included Messrs Kelly, Poole, Bullock, Rogers and F Chippendale for their friendly approach with the public. It was a long two days for them from Carnforth at lunchtime on Friday to Hellifield at midnight last night. Indeed thanks to all at WCR for taking such a job on.

Speaking of which, one thing I did discover is that the problem with the Hellifield DGL is that the overlaps are too short to be permissible for passenger working. Someone with more knowledge than I can translate that into English. But the good news is that it is in NR's plan to rectify this in September, so the operational problems should soon be in the past.

 

The North Wales Daily Post website has an article with photos .
The reporter has christened the 8f 'Rheilffordd' (Welsh for railway), having assumed that the headboard is the locos' name.
There is also a photo of somebody leaning out of a door window,although he does look like the sort your average steward might not want to argue with !

Bob.

 

Thanks for the report, sounds like a good day. I agree about the lack of things to do at Blaenau. I don’t know about short overlaps either but thanks for getting to the bottom of the problem, good news that it is to be fixed.

 

Our footage of yesterdays Conway Quest

 

Excellent shots. The long distance shot reminds me of many a childhood summer holiday in North Wales, 1950's/early 1960's. It always rained but on a caravan site next to the main line, this small boy was in paradise!