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Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway

Discussion in 'Narrow Gauge Railways' started by tony51, Apr 10, 2017.

  1. andrewshimmin

    andrewshimmin Well-Known Member

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    More good news from WLLR: it's been reported that Sierra Leone Railway No. 85 will be restored at Aberystwyth, with a planned return to steam in 2025. This is being generously funded by Friends of the Sierra Leone National Railway Museum.

    Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk
     
  2. tony51

    tony51 New Member

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  3. ragl

    ragl Well-Known Member

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    The last train for today departs Castle Caereinion after a sudden downpour.........

    DSC_4276 (1024x834).jpg


    Cheerz,

    Alan
     
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  4. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Two pictures down from the scrummy looking cake .. (no sign-in needed)

    https://m.facebook.com/WelshpoolSteamRailway/?__tn__=C-R

    There's a very tantalising greeting from a sister (cryptic, eh?). Having a bit of a dig around, I think said sister lives at the Steyr Valley Railway.
     
  5. tony51

    tony51 New Member

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  6. Spamcan81

    Spamcan81 Nat Pres stalwart

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    Is this not a prime example of big dieselitis? ;)
     
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  7. Paulthehitch

    Paulthehitch Well-Known Member

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    :rolleyes: 1 in 30 gradient with check railed reverse curves. Standard gauge in UK has it relatively easy.
     
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  8. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Well, since Ilfrafombe and Folkestone Harbour closed, at any rate (I know .... but trains on those two tended to be just a tad heavier!) .

    Great news for the W&L. For Bob's sake, just don't paint it green! :)
     
  9. tony51

    tony51 New Member

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    I see that the newly restored Premier will be visiting from Sittingbourne for the September gala. That means the 3 steam locos running will be 122, 120 and 117 years old.
     
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  10. jamesd

    jamesd Member

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    Won’t 699 be ready by then? Whoever decided to get rid of the Resita in 2016 and instead “quickly overhaul” 699 to fill the gap must have been extremely optimistic!
     
  11. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    It'll be interesting to learn how Premier gets on with Golfa Bank. The W&L has a way of sorting the sheep from the goats ..... and I've noticed that locos which survive the test have a habit of returning home rather better tuned than when the left. :)
     
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  12. 5944

    5944 Resident of Nat Pres

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    They've said it'll probably be used on Llanfair to Cyfronydd shuttles over the gala sadly.

    Regarding the Resita, one of the comments I heard was they were fed up of trying to engineer the Romanian out of it! It seems to be working fine back home though.
     
  13. meeee

    meeee Member

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    A small fortune was spent trying to make it a useful loco. Boiler repairs, motion overhaul, new exhaust, new cab and so on. It repayed this investment by snapping one of the crank webs off. The W&L relies quite heavily of volunteers for it's engineering work. It isn't sustainable to for them to rebuild a Romanian engine every season. The loco was supposed to run for 10 years so they could get on with something else. Instead it just gobbled up resources.

    It's not the only bad decision that has led to a shortage of locos, but it certainly didn't help.
    Tim
     
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  14. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    So far as timetabled trains are concerned, but could any owner, or representative thereof resist the temptation to see how it does on Golfa? Could you? No fibbing now! :)

    Re Resita .... I think it's home stamping ground is a little less taxing.
     
  15. tony51

    tony51 New Member

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  16. Major Midget

    Major Midget New Member

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    The same was said for Superb when that visited, at least in 2017 I believe, Superb proved herself enough to be let loose in 2018, which is understandable if rating Superb as the equivalent of Joan.

    Premier on the other hand is just a humble 0-4-2T, so unassisted trains to Welshpool might be a stretch too far with a typical load, but that's speculation.
     
  17. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Didn't Superb need the odd tweakette before giving of it's best?

    Whilst an 0-4-2ST mightn't be the equivalent of the power of the BP twins, let's not forget what 0-4-2STs did on the not unduly level Corris!
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2022
  18. jamesd

    jamesd Member

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    Superb was allowed 3 Zillers on its own to Welshpool in 2018 so not really a full length rake. I suspect Premier at best will make it to Castle. They could of course use it to pilot all trains up Golfa and swap over at Sylfaen. Something similar was done when the Henschel from Bredgar visited in 1994(?).
     
  19. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Do I recall one of the S&K fleet not being too happy on it's first holiday to Powys, but considerably inproved next time around?

    It's a shame the buffer arrangements on the W&L don't lend themselves to a good old Lickey style shove and drop back at the top!

    If there's one thing 'new' locos and the line's visitors have demonstrated over the years, it's just how good BP's original design was all those years ago.

    I once read somewhere that the W&L twins could be considered an enlarged six coupled derivative of the GVT locos. Does anyone know much about the genesis of the design, as "We want a loco to lump XX Tons up 1:30 uncompensated" seems a tad light on detail. Who for the W&L (or Cambrian?) approached who at BP?
     
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  20. tony51

    tony51 New Member

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    As far as I understand (just from what I’ve read as I am actually 4000 miles away) Superb was a great success and exceeded all expectations. Chevallier had problems a few years before, it was kept for a while for tests to be carried out, but then went back to its owner. A pity as it looked really good in the photos.
     
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