Festiniog and Welsh Highland in a day

[Guest Phil]

Just to let you know that is is possible to ride both lines in a day from the Midlands, but only on a few days in the year - pink timetable. Some colleagues from work planned a trip so I tagged along and offer my experience here.

 

The plan for colleagues was to catch the 0743 ATW service from Wolverhampton to Llandudno Junction which they got onto from points around Langley Green and Rowley Regis by local trains. I opted to catch the 0730 LMT service from Penkridge to Crewe, which originates in Birmingham New St. I met an old friend of mine at Crewe and we travelled on the 0823 Crewe to Chester ATW service on a class 175, then on another class 175 on the 0922 from Chester to Llandudno Junction. We met the party at Llandudno Junction and travelled on 150281 up the Conwy valley in glorious weather on the 1034 service to Blaenau Ffestiniog.

 

It was a pleasure to see Blaenau in sunshine and we made our way round to the narrow gauge platform to buy our tickets. We were surprised not to be able to book a through ticket from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Caernarfon and only only assume this was because we were travelling "priv" as railway staff. Merddin Emrys made very light work of our train down to Portmadoc, where we adjourned to Spooners for lunch and a pint. There were a few coaches stabled in the Harbour yard along with the rebuilt Funkey diesel "Vale of Ffestiniog". Merddin Emrys was serviced and departed back to Blaenau, leaving the platform clear for the WHR arrival.

 

The handling of Caernarfon trains is a bit of a faff at Portmadoc, but there is little that could be done to improve it. The biggest problem probably is that the Garratts are too big to fit into the full length of the platform at Portmadoc Harbour station. The train from Caernarfon hands in the token as it steams out onto the Cob, then the drawback loco tootles out onto the Cob to couple to the rear,whilst the Garratt is detached from the Boston lodge end. The diesel then draws the train back round into the platform, whilst the Garratt follows and runs along a clear siding onto the fuelling point. The diesel then runs round and couples to the Boston Lodge end of the train. The formations of both WHR rakes of stock which we saw had an old WHR coach at the Boston Lodge end, then an FR sized bogie coach, then an open sided car, then a rake of WHR sized cars, including a service car, with a Pullman car on the Caernarfon end. At departure time, the diesel drew us out of the platform onto the Cob, followed by the Garratt No 87, which was coupled on. After the diesel was detached we departed through the centre of Portmadoc and off towards Pen y Mount.

 

Having visited the FR first in around 1967 or 1968 as a child I have always been in awe of the line, but felt a strange sense of anticlimax for the first few miles as we trundled along the flat route to Pont Croesor. We stopped at the station for around 7 or 8 minutes, waiting time, then trundled off northwards. Another of miles and the distant hills closed in on us and finally started climbing, probably from around Haford y Llyn station.

 

The climb up the Aberglasyn pass instantly got the passengers out of their seats and a look towards the front indicated that we were now earnestly climbing, that huge chimney pouring a torrent of clag out every time a shovel of coal hit the grate. A beautiful trip alongside the river, then twisting and winding the train climbed the mountain. I knew the Festiniog railway wanted these NGG16s for the line and realised they were powerful engines but they still work hard to keep the trains moving over the twisting route. I think it is safe to say that passengers on both sides of the train are treated equally to stunning views, I chose a "vestibule" "window" on the near side of the coach and was in awe of the route.

 

We crossed the only other train at Rhyd Ddu composed of an identically formed rake to ours with the big green NGG16 on the front - both locos were orientated smokebox south. From the Rhyd Ddu the line descended for miles alongside Cwellyn lake then much "flatland" running from Waunfawr to Dinas Junction, then on the former standard gauge formation to Caernarfon. The only visible stock at Dinas Junction was diesel Conwy Castle stabled on the southern end headshunt round the corner from the station, and the NG15 2-8-2 loco which I believe was 133. There was a pile of scrap metal which I took to be the scrapped tender body of either 133 or 134's tender, as I understand a new tender bodyshell has been constructed for 134, but is temporarily riding on 133's tender chassis.

 

From Caernarfon WHR station we had a brisk five minute walk into the town to catch a bus to Bangor. There were actually three buses destined for Bangor, the one we caught was a Padarnbus via Velinheli. Mick and myslef left the others on the bus to go into the centre, whilst we had a quick pint in a hotel opposite the station then shoehorned ourselves onto a wedged ATW 158 which formed a Holyhead-Shrewsbury service, departing Bangor promptly at 1809. We stood all the way to Chester then caught the 1935 Chester-Euston Virgin Voyager as far as Crewe. I bade farewell to Mick then caught a Liverpool - Birmingham LMT Desiro from Crewe to Penkridge arriving at 2054.

 

This part of Wales was very green, with a lot of water in the rivers, apparently having received a lot of rain the previous day. A really enjoyable day, and an ideal way of "doing" the network in one go. There are two reasons why it is only possible to to do this on a few selected mondays. One is that the coach tour operators need to be the primary "pleaser" and the timetable is built around that traffic. This means that the morning departure from Caernarfon, on most days doesn't allow enough time to run from Beddgelert to Portmadoc and back, before the coach tours need the passengers to be heading back to Caernarfon. Another reason apparently involves stock rotation.

[Christopher125]

A very enjoyable read, though i think its worth mentioning that something is indeed going to be done about Harbour station.

 

The FR platform will soon be moved slightly away from the road to allow the WHR its own platform along the cob. Unless plans have changed, Welsh Highland trains will still need a shunt-release but by greatly reducing the time spent blocking the FR both lines can operate reliably their full timetables at the same time - this is the reason why trains still terminate at Pont Croesor, which fingers crossed will no longer be the case next year.

 

Chris

[Phil Traxson]

Further to the previous comments, the Cob is , over the first couple of months of next year, to be extended seawards in the area of harbour station to get the extra width needed.

It would have been done by now but after the original plans were made the body responsible for the Cob was changed and the plans had to be re-negotiated.

It remains to be seen whether, welsh weather etc. allowing, the work will be done in time for next years timetable!

 

Phil T.

[TomJ]

Whilst on holiday in North Wales I mused on whether this trip would be possible. It looks like you could do it on the summer timetable as long as you started and finished at Porthmadog and went clockwise ie WHR first then bus, national

rail and finally FR.

What I'm really looking forward to is one day maybe doing Blanau Ffestiniog to Caernarfon return!!