A Welsh mountain railway...

You don't always appreciate what is on your doorstep. It took photos by Tom Foster of his wonderful OO finescale layout Cwm Prysor to get me to take a closer look at the old GWR lines in my area...

Having purchased the pair of Lightmoor Press books on both the Ruabon to Barmouth and Bala to Blanau Ffestiniog lines I've found myself drawn back to standard gauge modelling after probably 10 years or more in narrow gauge. Local interest helps, along with two very modellable lines - the decision on which will fly will wait for now, but I've been visiting and discovering the remains on my door step and flicking through th ebooks most days for the past few weeks. As well as that, I've dug out the remnants of my childhood OO collection to see what stock survived, I've re-worked an old Dapol 14xx and Bachmann 8750, and recently picked up a Bachmann 64xx to breathe into a 74xx, very much of the area, and more on those developments another time.

Llanderfel station, March 2019

The first stop last week was Llandderfel, on the old Ruabon Barmouth line, the last before Bala. This station used to boast a pair of platforms, and was a passing place on the once busy route to the coast. Since the line was severed by the flood of December 1964, the station has been demolished, and an unsuccessful 1970s holiday development and also fallen into disrepair on the site, today very overgrown. The old wooden staircase survives, but I wouldn't risk it, down onto what was the platform level. I took the back road from home (Glyndyfrdwy) through Corwen, Cynwdd, Llandrillo and onto Bala, where we turned north and headed up the Tryweryn valley towards Trawsfynydd.

Frongoch station, March 2019

My first stop was Frongoch, I'd looked on Google Earth and reckoned the station and signal box were still in good condition, but hadn't searched, otherwise I'd have found it all online as a holiday home! The box contains a snooker table now... here you can see my car pulled up infront of where the Pannier tanks stopped back in the day, the platform still in place. Unfortunately the station has been extended and pebble dash rendered, but the Scot's pine trees are still there, and you can imagine the fairly pleasant location back in time, waiting for the train into Bala.

Trackbed and bridge just north of the halt at Capel Celyn, March 2019

I drove up past Llyn Celyn, remembering the sad tales of how the Welsh were treated by the Liverpool corporation and the government, and turned off for Arenig, driving through the village at first and on to the old track bed, before walking along to the old bridge at Capel Celyn halt. The weather was pretty awful, I must go back on a nice day and take some bette photos.

Remains of stone conveyor crossing the road down to the station, Arenig, March 2019

Back at Arenig, the only real remains of the station site were a number of the stone/cement piers that took the rock conveyor over the station to the crusher. The site itself seems to have been cleared when ARC closed the quarry, I'm not sure of the exact date. I've seen photos on eBay of the site after the line had been lifted when a cement silo also seemed to have been erected on the site - the quarry was used during constructing of the dam, the trackbed becoming a roadway for the stone trucks. I believe they only renounced the rights to it in 1997. Arenig boasted a pair of short sidings, small goods facilities (no shed) and passing loop being the first north of Bala.

Trackbed north of Arenig, March 2019

This final shot shows the trackbed as you leave Arenig heading back to the new main road. Compare this to photos when the line in the late 1950s and not much has changed, you get a real feel for the bleak environment up here, it's rugged and shrouded in mist and rain a lot of the year, mystery you might say as a zen buddhist, Welsh mountain weather if you're more local. Whatever it is, there is a strange draw which seems to get under your skin - and I've a feeling that either Frongoch or Arenig may end up being a scratch I need to itch in the coming years...

More soon...