Ffestiniog Railway photos

[Beardybloke]

Another couple of photographic posts transferred over from RMweb3 - the original thread can be found here.

 

Following a request in another thread, here are a few photos of the area around Tanygrisiau and Blaenau Ffestiniog, mainly of the houses and landscape rather than the trains themselves - this might have something to do with me being on the train at the time...

 

Anyway, apologies for some of the photos - most of them were taken in the depths of winter and I'm bad at photography at the best of times

 

 

This first one's the old Duffws station building - now a public convenience, but at least it's still with us! The FR lines used to run roughly where the thawed patch of road can be seen, as can one of the ever-present slate tips.

 

 

The later line to Dinas (not the WHR Dinas) branches off at Glan-Y-Pwll junction roughly under where I am on the train in this shot. The grey roofed building that can be seen above the first three coaches incorporates part of the old locomotive shed. It can't be seen very well from this point, but for much of the run from Tanygrisiau to Blaenau the railway is winding its way between the houses, although not quite in Corris style!

 

 

Granted, for anybody modelling the pre-preservation line, there should be a railway in this picture, not a ruddy great big lake! The old Moelwyn tunnel is roughly in the centre of the shot, whilst the current route runs behind the power station to the right. When the deviation line was being considered, one option was the 'east shore' route, culminating in a run over the Ystradau dam. Now that would have been a sight to see!

 

 

A couple of photos of various houses by the lineside in Tanygrisiau, with the slate tips at Blaenau visible on the horizon.

 

 

Summer now, and whilst this is the new alignment and around 3ft higher than the old, by this point the two alignments are almost superimposed, and the surrounding terrain hasn't altered that much over the years. Plus, I'm really proud of the shot, so I'm just making excuses

 

Finally, a shot that I'm really proud of... the terraces on the left are some of the ones seen above as the line starts to climb away from the station and shows how the railway winds between the houses, but again, I just really like this picture

 

 

I've got plenty of other photos, but not all that many of modelling interest to be entirely honest... though most of them are better quality than these! I might put some more up at some point

 

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A few more photos of the FR, taken in 2005:

 

The first few are from the February trip seen above - down from Blaenau behind the Earl and then back up behind Prince - I seem to remember that there was a posession on the lower half of the line over the weekend (we went on a Friday) and so Prince was used on the last train of the day as the England engines are apparently easier to service at Glan-y-Pwll. The snow line itself petered out somewhere above Tan-y-Bwlch, though there were a few patches of slush around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest are from either the 1940s weekend in Spring or the Vintage weekend in October 2005:

Livingston Thompson was still around at this point - seen outside the old Boston Lodge loco shed with a garish looking Welsh Pony, although it's certainly a good thing that the latter isn't sat on its plinth looking forlorn any more - it'd probably put a dent in a Garratt!

 

 

A couple of shots of the double headed train seen in the OP, this time on Creuau bank just above Tan-y-Bwlch:

 

 

 

These two are from the Vintage weekend in October 2005 - Merddin Emrys on the Victorian set at the Tan-y-Bwlch water tower. At this point, the set was sans No. 15, sat forlornly in the second platform at Blaenau having run hot...

 

 

 

A photographic location that you can't go far wrong with - the cast iron bridge just below Tan-y-Bwlch with Palmerston hauling the soon-to-be gravity train:

 

 

Another highly photogenic location (not that the FR is short of those!) - Palmerston seen earlier that morning hauling the same slate train up Gwyndy Bank:

 

 

and Blanche coasting down it with the 'workmen's train':

 

 

Finally, the FR's raison d'etre, and obligatory at any FR event, a gravity slate train approaching Penrhyn Crossing:

 

 

Having sorted through all of these, I really, really want to go back and start snapping away! It's always a challenge to try to find something or somewhere different to photograph on the FR as it's so popular, and these certainly aren't anything new or special, but it's not going to stop me from trying. Enjoy

[BernardTPM]

 

Finally, the FR's raison d'etre, and obligatory at any FR event, a gravity slate train approaching Penrhyn Crossing:

 

 

That's the trouble with using standard Peco instead of proper chaired track - if it weren't for that it might convince as being real Festiniog

 

Seriously though, nice photos.