Dyfrdwy Tramway awakens 2024…

Only just in April, that sure beats last years June! The annual post-winter tidy up and clearing of the tramway this weekend saw on Sunday late afternoon as the shadows lengthened, trains running for the first time this year…

Dappled sunshine and sounds on the wind of birds singing, sheep and lamps calling one another, children playing… here I am, playing too, becoming lost in a story I’m writing in my head.

 

The line has beautifully matured over the last 6 or so years and generally looks after itself. I love how the bushes have developed hiding the house and focusing the eye on this ‘modelled’ section up from the wharf through the slate walling and towards the mill site. I’ve taken the gates in for some TLC so the lack of obstruction an interesting development, accentuating the flow, the awkward curves and roller coaster gradient - wonderfully naturally light tramway. 

I was recently asked if I planned to build anymore stock or locomotives this year, and I can honestly say, no, I have everything I need. The four (battery r/c) diesel locomotives in four very different sizes, style and colours are a wonderful balance against the short chunky characterful stock, and whilst I could build every piece of stock I had originally envisaged there isn’t room really anyway. Instead, my head tells me a rebuild of the quarry is required and wouldn’t it be nice to finish the engine shed and water tank, perhaps the overhead crane too… we will have to see what happens, I say that every year.

 

Time for one last run up the line, just one more… watching me you’d see the child like play as I drive and follow the Simplex through the scenery, ducking low to enjoy the realism, echoes of that childhood on my tummy behind the sofa watching the train on the carpet. They might be realistic, characterful models but it’s still playing.

One last photo, too, posed down on the retaining wall I built last year thanks to bird damage (pecking the moss out of the sides of the roadbed). The last of the light almost silhouetting the Simplex, sun picking out the disc wheels and highlighting back edges of detail, as I lie on the ground, lost in the scene, trying to capture the love I feel in a photographic composition. Until next time, more soon…

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