Glyn Valley

There's an update on progress from the GVT website. Steady progress on land acquisition, plus some indication of some of the reasons for lack of reports over the past few months.

http://glynvalleytramwaytrust.co.uk/GVTT_news.html

 

So are the society and trust still separate organisations?

 

From what I can see, short answer (sorry) - Bob only knows! The full title is "The New Glyn Valley Tramway and Industrial Heritage Trust". S'pose the fairest thing is to bung their website's url up too: http://www.glynvalleytramway.org.uk/index.html The focus of this group appears to be conservation efforts in a museum at the Glyn Ceiriog end, with the GVT Trust ( http://glynvalleytramwaytrust.co.uk/index.html ) concentrating on restoration at the Chirk end of the route ..... as far as I can tell, but for Pete's sake, don't take my (possibly seriously flawed) understanding of the situation as gospel!

It was all so much easier when the two groups were at each others throats!

 

Have I got it right - the lot at Glyn Ceiriog was 2'g but now the original 2' 4 1/2"g. and the lot at Chirk are going to be 2' 6"gauge? Bring back the People's Front of Judea (or was it The Judean People's Front?)
Ray.

 

Or the "Popular Front" .... Why have I got the theme music from "Soap" in my head?

As far as I recall, the GVT&IHT were always for the historic 2'-41/2" gauge (as opposed to the original 2'-41/4" gauge, which may only ever have existed on paper anyway) and the GVT Trust were in favour of 2'-6" gauge, coz it's more common, but now agree on the historic gauge (as laid in the restored shed at Chirk), but have proposed a 2'-0" gauge 'starter' section to get the ball rolling. Or was it the other way around?

Confused? You will be after this week's episode of ..... (cue that music!)

 

At last an update .... (I had to trawl back 16 pages to find the thread!) ..... but as it's such positive news, they can be forgiven the wait!

It's below the photo:
http://www.glynvalleytramway.org.uk/news.html

 

I called in at the end of the summer and was very impressed by how tidy it all was. I visited both ends and it looks promising. I did manage to go on a day when the museum was shut though!

 

Update time:
https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2021/1...unches-250000-all-change-at-chirk-appeal.html

 

Very interesting.
(and only a few minutes walk from the house we have been waiting to buy since July 2021. Fingers crossed that our chain will complete soon in the new year.)

More pics available directly from the Trust website at https://www.glynvalleytramwaytrust.co.uk/GVTT_news.html

 

The profile of the second P&H loco, Talybont (Bagnall No.1497), has risen slightly on the VoR website, on which line, as No.3 Rheidol, it did it's longest stint (1902-24). With the arrival of the Collett prairie tanks and the decline of the branch to Aberystwyth Harbour (where it was the only loco allowed), it became redundant and was scrapped before it's allocated GW number (1198) could be applied. I suspect it hadn't seen service for a while before official withdrawal. Looks wise, think "Groudle Glen's Brown Bear on steroids".

The Launceston Railway has a fine replica of the sole P&H carriage and some (much rebuilt) ex-P&H wagons survive at Aberystwyth.

The first P&H loco, built by John Slee, Victoria, was 'interesting', being a vertical boilered 0-4-0, enclosed and less successful version of the deWinton quarry locos. I would say "Try and picture a ...... ", but seriously, you really don't want to. It looked worse than it performed!

I suspect there's more chance of the Ffestiniog building a new branch to Portmeirion than any P&H revival .... unless sea level rise forces the Fairbourne to up sticks!

Re: the revived GVT .... I do wonder whether the line's historic connection (at Chirk) with the canal mightn't be a very useful feature to restore, at some future point.

 

Hi all! The Glyn Valley Tramway Trust have launched their station rebuild appeal, to bring Chirk station back to life. Hopefully this will interest some of you, and maybe one day we will see passenger journeys at Chirk Tramway once again.

 

For the curious https://www.alamy.com/english-plynl...-and-victoria-locomotives-image211343657.html

 

Tried playing 'spot the wheels' on Victoria? The contraption appears to be sat on timber baulks, rather than rails. It's interesting to follow, in old photos, the evolution of Talybont / Rheidol, from that prominent spark arrester, crude cab and dumb buffers through to it's final VoR form, with Cambrian-fitted steel cab, by the time of withdrawal.

There was a third loco down thataway too, a small Bagnall 0-4-0ST (Sorry, don't have my reference books to hand), which seems to have spent it's life at the eastern end of the line. A sister loco from the same batch is preserved in Japan.

 

According to this http://www.merionethrailwaysociety.com/coffeepots-ii.html her wheels were 18" diameter. Her frames seem to be about 2" above rail level, which gives a sofa-on-castors effect. Not the worst looking locomotive ever though, but really not as attractive as (huge heave to get this thread back) the GVT's locos

 

...... or remotely as effective. There's a reason the name John Slee only crops up once in the annals of locomotive construction, whereas Beyer Peacock were, when left to do the design work (!), purveyors of some of the very finest locomotives ever built.

 

Screen Shot 2022-01-13 At 15.52.04 by JMJR1000 posted Jan 13, 2022 at 3:54 PM

Great to finally see some real tangible progress be made towards reviving the Glyn Valley Tramway at Chirk, though with the notable change from the orginal line being that the railway is planned to be built to 2'-6" gauge after all, with the idea in mind of the surviving ex GVT carriages visiting at some stage. Helps as well they can have visitors from other railways come visit and operate on the line as and when it's eventually being rebuilt, with the first big step of the plan being a mile stretch. Certainly it would be interesting too as if they commit to that gauge, and I assume plan on building a replica of the original locos that run the line, it would be built to the wider gauge. So you could quite possibly see one of these unique looking engine visiting the Talyllyn Railway!

That be a crazy if pretty incredible sight to see...

 

From that it reads 2'6" is just temporary for current item of rolling stock, but there plan is to switch to the narrow gauge of 2'3" so the original stock from Taylllyn (and a loco can visit) for the initial demonstration line.

 

Having thought the warped floorboard of GVT gauge was sorted out back when hatchets were buried, I'm getting a mite confused. Not so very long ago it was definitely,positively to be the authentic historic 2'-41/2", some of which I understood to have been laid down already.

 

It does mention this as demonstration lines for events at the moment, so hopefully not the final gauge.