News from FR/WHR

As one of that "group" (although I am not sure it was ever formalised as such) who contributed to the new tanks I'm really not sure that any mention of rights came in to it. Certainly we had the blessing of the FR General Manager and Works Manager and the photo taken of the "group" on the last day of assembly includes the GM. Statements at the time suggested that the tanks were going to be fitted "at the next overhaul" - i.e. the last one - but it never happened for all sorts of reasons.

 

Maybe in 50 years or so someone will be appealing for a rebuild (or replica) of the Earl in its original form.

 

Looking ahead to February, when there will be trains all the way from Porthmadog to Caernarfon, will these be worked by FR locos, as the trains are technically FR trains that have been exiled to WHR because of the roadworks?

Taliesin, Palmerston or Merddin Emrys in the Aberglaslyn gorge? Will I need to camp overnight to secure a place in the gallery for the photo of the year?

Perhaps I'm being a silly boy.

 

There's to be one return trip from each end so I expect one will be of Dinas-based stock and the other from the FR. Haulage of the latter will be quite interesting considering the gradients. Don't expect to see small locos.

 

A WHR set and loco will be stabled overnight at Boston Lodge to form the next day's first down working. The locos will normally be 87 (the blue one) and 143 (shortly to reappear in green and coal-fired).

 

"butbutbutbut the Earl embodied the spirit of the times"

So was Maggie Thatcher but it does not mean I like her either!:eyebrows:

 

The Earl is a masterpiece of design, and one of the (sadly rather few) serious practical successes from the mind of Rodney Weaver. I recall his drawings for turning Mountaineer into a super-single fairlie, that resembled half of the Earl (that *was* ugly!) and alas I experienced the Single Fairlie he did build, Minim, which defied all expectations by being *less* stable than an equivalent fixed frame locomotive, and was also rather "unique" in design. Sadly, all that remains of Minim are the trailing bogie (on a carriage), and the boiler (on a different locomotive), but both were out and about today.

 

As Tony says not the case at all.

I seem to remember the tanks were quite leaky at the time and thought to be in a similar state to Merddins old ones. As Merddin needed new tanks and the Square was looking the same way it made sense to make them to the same design at the same time. Nothing more to it than that.

Since then Merddin proved to be unreliable and so the Square had to be turned around quickly and the old tanks patched up. It was and still is a good idea. The railway got 4 tanks at material cost only(which was paid for by donations anyway), and a volunteer project on that scale has not been seen since.

T-Y-B footbridge is a completely different situation.

Tim

 

Is there a picture or drawing of this contraption? Sounds fascinating...

Chris

 

to give you a general idea (and sorry for the thread drift everyone). Imagine a 7 1/4" gauge 1/3 scale Decauville 0-4-2 tank, based around the freelance Romulus boiler then slice the running gear off and replace it with a bogie comprising the wheels and motion of a 1/8 scale Standard Gauge 0-4-0 Industrial with Walschaerts Valve gear. Lose the rear pony truck, and replace with a bogie identical with the standard Echills Wood Railway carriages of the day (boxy, outside frames, not much lateral stability). There you, basically, have Minim. When Rodney died, she was left to the EWR, who used the boiler to repair another Romulus, the trailing bogie to act as a carriage spare and the rest was scrapped.

 

Thanks for that, a strange and rather unnatractive beast then!

 

The roster has now changed to Merddin and Taliesin due to the invention of the train operated trailerable point, thus preventing the use of Palmerston.

Tim

 

Pooh. I was looking forward to my couple of days on Eric. Tal isn't too bad a trade off, still Jolly Good Fun

 

Any idea when Lyd will be entering the paintshop?

 

Watch this space for very interesting news...

 

Had an excellent trip today with ME on the front and Taliesin on the rear. All the loops were locked out.
It was a good effort to run the train which had a decent load as there is a foot of snow at the top of the line and clearly everyone had worked hard to deliver the serevice. The views were magnificent.

Mike
http://www.rlsr.org

 

I Also Had A Great Day On Wednesday With Taliesin And The Earl
Most Of The Snow Had Gone but there was still some up at blaenau.

 

I was kindly told that there's an empty stock working down from Dinas to Boston Lodge tomorrow; does anyone know what time it might be due in Portmadog over Brittania Bridge?
Cheers
Tim

 

I Think it was about 13:30. (not much use now sorry!) Also On Barrie Hughes Site He Claims The Grand Opening to be on the 1st April and not the 20th April as Previously Stated. Any Idea's of which day and what special events that the F&WHR are Hosting This Year?
Nathan

 

Oh God. Trust me, it's the 20th of April. 175 years to the day after the opening of the FR in 1836. And that was a Wednesday too.