The greatest railway in the world (again)…

It is with a little tongue in cheek but plenty of heart that I describe the Ffestiniog as ‘the greatest’. It certainly has claim to be the grandfather - as its the oldest operating railway company in the world. Its survival is a wonderful mix of industrial foresight, dogged determination and later passionate and visionary volunteers…

I have, in the past few weeks, been experimenting with my phone. Rather than edit photos after taking them these are composed on the screen as we used to with a SLR, through the view finder. I’ve tried black and white, as it offers less distraction from the colours of our modern world. 

Only my second trip this year, and my son and I travelled from Blaenau on the Quarryman service in their new named nomenclature. This was very evocative of those early visits, as a child. We always travelled to Porthmadog and in my hazy memory it was always Linda, my favourite, who was my first Ffestiniog engine, to be repeated yesterday… (however, it transpired that I always misremembered and it had been Mountaineer).

We crossed the Mountain Spirit service at Tanygrisau.

The black Garrett with South African markings is my favourite, she looked fabulous at Porthmadog.

The view from lunch at Borth-y-gest, note the train crossing the cob, I think a Mountain Spirit service.

South African vacuum hose!

Wonderful seats in the second class observation car - I didn’t really look at the view on the return journey. The crew put in a great show firing Linda back to Blaenau demonstrating great skill on the odd occasion we slipped on greasy rails.

Climbing to Tan-y-bwlch.

Looking back at Dduallt.

Moelwyn tunnel.

In all, a long and tiring but wonderfully restorative day. If you’ve never visited what are you waiting for, if you have, when are you going back?

Slightly out of sequence, this TfW train for Conwy was departing just prior to our own departure. 

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