Llangollen Railway: Great Western 7754...

Summer 1994 and 14 year old me is visiting the Llangollen Railway to travel to the new station at Glyndyfrdwy…

I would be back many times in the following years and today, I call the village my home. Back then though, stood at the top of the embankment taking photos on either one of my cheap point and shoot 35mm film cameras or possibly Dad’s OM10 (though I expect the former in this instance) breathing in the sights and smells of recently restored Pannier tank 7754.

Not quite sure how I would have managed this photo unless we hung about in Llangollen, or perhaps I’ve put these negative scans on the wrong order! I’ve recently discovered a box of old negatives and there are a few more posts worth of railway related oldies to write about here… it’s nice to still own them, they bring back fond memories, a sort of strange mix of nostalgia as well as through my modelling eyes what they could teach me about the prototypes they represent. As today’s Llangollen Railway slowly recovers  from the PLCs bankruptcy, these earlier days full of hope and promise might give us a moment of encouragement that what has been achieved once, can be again.

Until next time, more soon…

EDIT:

A regular reader sent me a recollection and reflection from his and 7754s earlier time pre-preservation:

Interesting post especially as it is important to you. It’s always nostalgic to find old photographs especially if they also have a connection with the now.

Most of my industrial railway photos are in several lever arch files together with the notes I took on my visits. They go back to the mid-1960’s so might be one thing I would try and keep if the house caught fire!!. However now they are a place to turn for what is mostly history and your latest blog made me go to my files. 

Alan Sewell photo, 7754 at Mountain Ash 1970.

The only time I have seen 7754 was in September 1970 when it was being steam tested at the back of the NCB shed at Mountain Ash in South Wales. I don’t think there was any thought of preservation or at that time the decline and fall of the coal industry which swept all the mines systems away . 

Seeing it restored and in use back in 1994 and now is an example of what can be done to keep some history alive

Best regards

Alan