December Update (1)

Ffestiniog Railway Bygones Weekend, October 8th - 10th 

Apologies for the lack of blog posts in recent months. It seems that with more and more events going on I have had less and less time to write about things let alone do very much in the way of modelling. By way of compensation, I’ll post about a few of the railway related things that I’ve done since the Farnham 009 Open Day in August.

In fact nothing much railway related happened at all until October when I ventured up to North Wales for the Ffestiniog Railway’s Bygone Weekend from the 8^th to 10^th.

                                        Prince at Porthmadog early on Saturday morning.

As with last year’s similar event, this was a scaled down, covid secure, version of the usual Autumn vintage weekend
with dedicated services to Tan y Bwlch, Blaenau Ffestiniog and also to Beddgelert on the Welsh Highland. The accompanying images show a little of what went on.

On the Sunday I joined the special inspection train for Diamond Jubilee Appeal supporters. An early start from Porthmadog saw the train hauled by Upnor Castle as far as Boston Lodge, where were able to see the latest developments, inspect the nearly completed New Large Carriage Shed and hear the news that the railway’s bid to the National Lottery heritage Fund had been successful.

Lyd with Supporters train at Boston Lodge.

On leaving Boston Lodge the train, now hauled by Lyd took us first to Blaenau then back down the line to a stop at the south end of the Moelwyn Tunnel. Here we detrained to attend the official dedication ceremony to mark the completion of the new stone portals for the tunnel. Effectively this ceremony, performed by FR president Mike Schuman and local MP Liz Saville-Roberts, also marked the completion of the deviation project of the late 1960s and 1970s. Reading about the exploits of the deviationists as I was growing up in the 1970s I could never have imagined that I might one day be present at an event to mark the completion of the project.

                                                    Dedication ceremony at Moelwyn Tunnel.

The train then ran to Beddgelert, pausing briefly at Pen Cob to swap the motive power for NG/G16 No 87. A really enjoyable and memorable weekend.

NG/G16 87 at Beddgelert with the Supporters train.