The Vale of Rheidol Railway - News

I can say for certain there was definitely a press release confirming plans, although how it's bypassed so many other news outlets genuinely surprises me...

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/18nBBQCLGW/

Storm Darragh: The Aftermath on the Vale of Rheidol Railway

This past weekend, Storm Darragh swept through Wales, leaving its mark across the landscape. While we are relieved to report that the section of the line to Capel Bangor – currently being used for our Polar Express™ trains – remains undamaged, further up the railway has not been so fortunate.

Yesterday, our dedicated team walked the full length of the line to Devil's Bridge and uncovered a scene of devastation. Between 80-100 trees have fallen across the railway, many in remote and hard-to-reach areas surrounded by steep terrain. In some places, the trees have caused further challenges by disturbing the trackbed with their root systems.

This is a monumental challenge for our team. The areas affected can only be accessed by rail, and the hazardous nature of some locations adds to the complexity. Our winter works programme was already packed, and this unexpected task will significantly impact our plans for the coming months.

Unfortunately, as the storm did not cause direct structural damage, our insurance does not cover the costs of clearing and repairing the line. This means the financial impact on the railway will be significant.

We are determined to overcome these challenges and keep the railway running, but this is a stark reminder of the forces of nature we contend with in such a beautiful but rugged part of Wales. We will keep you updated on our progress in the weeks ahead.

 

The Talyllyn seems to have been similarly affected. https://www.talyllyn.co.uk/news/storm-darragh-update/ as the the WHR/FR

Seems North Wales took the brunt of the storm.

 

Exciting news, one of the Gwalior Pacifics is to be restored to working order. What a sight that will be! I'm already hoping a visit up to the WHR could be aranged to run alongside the NG15, the power of such formidable tender engine two footers would be something else.

 

Exciting news followed by the inevitable frother on YouTube who wants to see it restored in GW green or BR black.
Why???
I despair of some people

 

Be nice to see the operational one turned out "as built" and the non-operational one gently tidied to a condition as it finished it's career- that tells a story.

Chris

 

Well, hopefully, Keith, that is not going to happen, my understanding is she/it will be returned to as she/it was last in use, i.e- a black boiler with an olive green cab and tender body line out in white well that is what I can see from a Lawie Marshall photo as they were working when he was out there many moons ago.

I took the hint that they plan to restore it to Indian running condition, which is certainly not going to make her popular with the chattering classes.

 

I have slightly mixed feelings

The VofR has up to now had a very 'unified' look with the three loco's and coaches

While I am very happy that the loco's from Collection X have survived and are being put back into operational condition I fear that it will take something away from the VofR

 

I would say that horse bolted many years ago. There are currently two liveries on the passenger stock, with BR blood/custard alongside the GWR chocolate/cream. The operational Rheidol Tanks (which have worn many varied liveries over the years) are in different liveries, and the Garratt has been sharing duties for the past couple of seasons.

 

The Indian livery was indeed a green cab and boiler black although the white lining was somewhat different to the dainty lining we are more used to in the UK as the following photo shows (along with a somewhat younger and thinner Fergusmacg taken on shed in Gwalior in 1982! ):

 

The standard Central Railways livery was green and black as described but over time it does appear there were subtle changes. From photos the white lining was evident in the 1970s with the running board “valance” being green. From about 1982 the later became yellow as seen in the above photograph. There is at least one published photo from the same year that also shows a Bagnall without any white lining at all. The locos now at the VoR now have yellow lining to the tender; not sure when this was applied. The options could therefore be a little more complicated although if the VoR are keeping one in a condition it was purchased then I would like to think the other would represent a slightly different period.
To add further two of the Bagnall (608 and 609) were allocated to the Agar - Ujjain line followed by 764 which became part of the Western Railway. Therefore, whilst not technically correct one of these locos could adorn the maroon livery of WR to represent a lost class member.
And if one of them was to represent the Gwalior Railway, the livery would be all black with a mauve band lined out in yellow and vermillion. Could be quite interesting!

 

There may be a precedent for quite a lot of different styles. Here is 764 (and 763?) in an undated image at Gwalior station.

 

Surprised it hasn't been picked up anywhere else yet but, as reported in Heritage Railway mag's latest, No. 9 is to be reverted to oil firing during its currently ongoing overhaul.

 

A pity from an acoustic perspective as the noise of the oil firing as fitted previously was fairly obtrusive but totally understandable from a fire risk point of view considering the issues that this summer has generated for numerous lines.
I wonder if they will consider doing the same thing with the Gwalior pacific?

 

Now that there is a working relationship between the Vof R and the Brecon Mountain railway, I wonder if we will see the Gwalior Pacific down there at some stage?

 

For that matter, it would also be nice to see one (or both!) of the Baldwin Pacifics from Brecon visit the VoR! But only time will tell...

Sent from my SM-A125F using Tapatalk

 

I happen to agree with you, and to a certain point, that is what the L&BR in Devon are trying to do; however, I think this could be dangerous since we, the railway enthusiasts, do not pay all the bills where as it is Mr and Mrs Joe Public and the 2.4 kids that do and the move away from what we expect to see can be a problem for some.

I will always recall the comment made to us at an HRA workshop many years ago, and it was from a leading consulate, and she said that we should never have two working locos in the same livery on the same day, she reasoned that you want to encourage your passengers to pay for two trips down the line behind different locos. Now, whether or not that still stands is open to question, but I do take her point about different locos and liveries.

Now I have not been back to the Harz Bahn for several years, but I guess that it has not changed that much yet that appears to be doing well with what I would call a corporate standard livery.

As I see it, at the end of the day, we have to play the piper's tune if that is what brings the money into the project to keep it going

 

Its been a while, but isn't it a ten hour round trip in the Harz? Bit longer than the L&B. You'd want a couple of days if you want to go up Brocken and see the railway museum.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by a 'round trip' of the Harz network, given that it's got six terminus stations and four junctions, but a trip from Wernigerode to Brocken and back takes at least 4 hours, assuming you only want about a quarter of an hour at the summit. You could also travel through from Wernigerode to Quedlinburg in a day, including visiting Brocken and Hasselfelde, but not Nordhausen (the Harzgerode line is currently closed for infrastructure works), but you'd then have to stop overnight at Quedlinburg if you wanted to do the whole system in reverse, in which case you could probably visit Nordhausen as well on the second day.

The system is actually marketed as three railways:
Brockenbahn from Wernigerode through Drei Annen Hohne to Brocken, by far the busiest route
Harzquerbahn from Drei Annen Hohne through Eisfelder Talmuhle to Nordhausen, the only busy section of which is the southern end which operates as an extension of the Nordhausen tram system, with a number of through services operated by dual power railcars which continue through the town on the tram line
Selketalbahn from Eisfelder Talmuhle to Stiege (branch to Hasselfelde), Alexisbad (branch to Harzgerode, currently operated by buses), Gernrode and then along the narrowed former standard gauge line to Quedlinburg

As regards colour schemes, all the steam locomotives currently running are in the correct colour for steam locomotives - black. The variety of locomotives is very much less than it used to be - ten years ago there were 2-10-2Ts from the 1950s, the 2-10-2T from the 1920s, a 2-6-2T from the 1930s and at least two if not three 0-4-4-0T Mallets from the early twentieth century, of two different types. As of today the only operational steam locomotives are the 2-10-2Ts from the 1950s. The railway is suffering a number of problems with difficulties recruiting staff, reductions in funding from the regional authorities, and fires on the Brocken route. The last of these is leading to steam locomotives being replaced by the large red diesels that were converted from standard gauge in the 1980s, of which there were/are only three left in service, although I believe another is now being or has recently been overhauled and brought back into use. There's also a small diesel shunter at Wernigerode and a number of railcars, though there seem to be problems even with keeping enough of these in service (even the ones that were built new in 1999) to meet the requirements of the timetable, so replacement bus services are relatively frequent.

 

In this case that’d include the ‘piper’ of Peter Rampton’s legacy which, in addition to lots of Collection X locos & stock, has also given enough money to buy another railway (Brecon) and hopefully more projects besides. He clearly had a vision beyond his own lunchtime.