Welsh Highland Railway opens to Beddgelert...

Hafod y Llyn - the site of the temporary return loop - is located at Grid Ref SH 597448, approximately 1/2-mile SSW of the bridge over the A4085.

The provisional naming, by the Operating Department, of the location as 'Hen Hafod' has been overturned in favour of retention of the historically accurate 'Hafod y Llyn'. The initial renaming was carried out to avoid a perceived possibility of confusion with Hafod y Llyn on the Ffestiniog Railway.

As for the re-opening of the full-length of the WHR... Our intention is to open as soon as possible after the main summer season, but we are not in a position to be more specific than that - at the present time...

 

Thankyou for that info Roger.

 

This is slightly off topic but it was Rogers great photos that made me notice a problem I have with seeing photos contained in posts.

On both my work and home computers the right hand side of the photos are missing.

In the case of Rogers photos on the top one the whole train is missing and on the 2nd one the road (and Renault!) is missing.

Ive been trying to send a post with a photo in but the same thing happens to the right hand side of the image.

I saw all of Rogers excellent images by following the link to his photobucket album.

Is it just happening to me or do other people have the same issue?

Thanks

Henry

 

Me too!

 

I get the same problem - it's probably because you've got a small monitor size or resolution. I can see the photos fine on my wide monitor at work, but they get cropped on my old 17" monitor at home.

The answer: people posting photos need to make them smaller. No larger than 720 pixels wide please.

Richard

 

:-k

Answer 2 - Use the scroll bar at the foot of your web browser to move the image into view...

;-)

 

Sorry, Roger - we don't get a scroll bar on a narrow/low resolution monitor. You just lose the right-hand side of the picture.

So your first photo earlier in this thread looked like this (lovely river, but where's the train?):
[attachment=0:rdktjjr6]imagetoobig.jpg[/attachment:rdktjjr6]
Richard

 

Great video of the opening and the first trains through the pass - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78gIsONV5mU

 

I followed Richards advice and resized the image to 720 pixels wide and ive just successfully posted a photo that wasnt cut in half!

Thanks for the help

Henry

 

it looks great and if ever I want to see a representation of a South African Railway...then I'll visit. However, i love the pictures and stories I have seen of the old WHR and it strikes me this is nothing like it. I think Id prefer to visit the Whipsnade and Umfolosi Railway....similarly false, but closer to the image of a narrow guage railway that I treasure.

 

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but .......... Llyn Cwellyn, Llyn y Gadair, Aberglaslyn and the mountains haven't moved since the 'old' Welsh Highland ground to a halt all those years ago. Picturesque the old railway may have been but hardly the best image of a narrow gauge railway; inadequate motive power crawling up over Pitt's Head burning filthy Belgian coal with the passengers suffering the discomfort of rolling stock which was well past its prime seventy years ago. Considering the flag that you so proudly fly, I would have thought that the Whipsnade and Umfolzi compared badly to the County Donegal. Now there was a narrow gauge system to drool over. It would have looked fine in Snowdonia.

It is not a representation of a South African Railway unless anyone has spotted the odd giraffe, lion, impala or hippo rolling about in the Glaslyn. The Garratts may have come from South Africa* but they were designed and built much nearer to Snowdonia than Capetown and the passenger rolling stock was designed and built locally.

Narrow Gauge does not have to be 'quaint' when there is such a view from the carriage window. Come and try it before passing judgment, you will not be disappointed.

Meic Batten

* K1, of course, came from Tasmania. It is not a representation of a Tasmanian railway either.

 

It does make me chuckle some of the comments about South African loco's in North Wales when we have had a GWR Hall to Fort William, Bulleid Pacific to Penzance, A4's to Holyhead and a Duchess on the ECML.

The origina WHR image 100% was never a realistic proposition if the line was going to be viable, that said the occasional run by Russell and some vintage stock would be nice if the people involved can stop throwing throwing the toys out the pram and come to an agreement.

 

well yes, Im sure that Russell and some vintage coaches would be far more to my taste....not going to happen anytime soon though I reckon

The remnants of the County Donegal are just fine where they are and although there isnt very much, its well worth a visit. Its a sad fact though that there are neither the volunteers nor the passengers to make very much than has already been done.

The OLD image of a bucolic WHR was an awful lot of its nostalgic charm...in my opinion of course. A highly efficent railway packed (possibly, we'll see) with tourists striding up the mountains surefootedly,behind massive locos is no where near representing what it was...but then its a tourist railway foremost,not a preserved one.

 

Whatever happend it was always going to end up something like it is now, you just wouldn't be able to run it otherwise, even the WHHR had an NG15 lined up!

 

I think the NG15's are more suitable and prettier then the NGG's...my personal opinion! Lets break out the NG15's and get them steaming instead! I have nothing against the NGG's, had the WHR not taken them on then they would have ended up rotting away, or worse! And any heritage railways has a responsibility to preserve as much steam as they can!

I do, however, sooooort of agree with Arthur though...I am fully aware that the commerical situation makes any realistic heritage option for the WHR completely out of the question on a large scale, but I mean afterall the FR manages to balance a commerically successful railway with mass heritage appeal! I am glad the NGG's have been saved, restored and are working hard, and they are beautiful locomotives that I would love to see one day, but I would also like to see some sort of VIABLE heritage alternative as well!

Either way bring on the NG15's

 

Going slightly off topic, but that statement is so wrong I couldn't let it pass!
There is a similar sentiment that does the rounds over here every time an old carriage/wagon/railcar/whatever is disposed of by one of the mainline companies. Suddenly every man and his dog is shouting 'hey that should be preserved' 'why isn't organisation X doing anything about it, they are a preservation group after all' and eventually 'It's a disgrace that X never did anything about preserving that. I'm never giving them money again'. But...if you think about it logically and economically, there is only so much siding space, so much undercover accomodation, and so many volunteers to actually work on the items. Railways are finally realising this and many have cleared or are clearing out rolling stock which they know they will never have the funds/workforce/ability to restore and use properly.

Simply saying 'preserve everything' doesn't work and never can work.


Keith

 

Some of the guys from WHR have been to Sandstone and have found out that NG15's will run backwards without the sky falling on thier head ;-) ;-) ;-)