Steam Loco Dept on Tour - Part Two

It's been three weeks now since the steam loco dept's weekend away in mid-Wales playing with some rather delightful narrow gauge locos, but I've finally got around to catching up with the second and last railway that we visited, the Vale of Rheidol.  Bill Tyndall had mentioned that he had a contact or two at the Vale of Rheidol Railway during the first day of our tour at the Talyllyn and contact details were acquired and phone calls made. 

Upon arrival we were greeted by a sign informing us of the train times, that the trees were in their Autumn colours and that I shouldn't forget my camera.  Many might wish that I would, but of course, I didn't.

As if I'd forget my camera

 We were also greeted by Bill's contact, Will Smith who gave us a tour of the running shed which housed their two serviceable steam locomotives, number 8, Llewelyn of 1923 and number 9, Prince of Wales of 1932.  Their third steam loco, number 7, Owain Glyndwr of 1923 has been the subject of a long term overhaul since 1998.

The trio were famously the last three steam locos operated by British Railways, staying under their ownership until privatisation in 1989.

Will describing the finer points of number 9

All three locos were built by GWR and were sent back to Swindon when they required major overhauls.  Unsurprisingly, given Swindon's desire for standardisation, many components on these three are common to other GWR classes.

Llewelyn is tastefully turned out in GWR green.

Cleaning number 8 prior ti running the day's service trains

Prince of Wales is currently in a fetching shade of Cambrian black:

Will fielded many questions from the GWSR contingent

I was impressed to hear that the whole operation is covered by just 24 full time staff with no operational volunteers.  That's quite an achievement and involves many people wearing a number of different hats.  It's not all good news though, the running shed has some major structural problems on the later extension that had been attached as an afterthought on this side.

Tina made a new friend

Llewelyn was soon coupled up to the stock

Ready for departure

Regardless of the time of year, the VOR include at least one open sided carriage for the hardier passengers.  As can be seen from this shot, most of us were finding it a bit cold, even before we'd set off.

Ed was still in just a shirt though.

Setting off on the first of 2 round trips

Nice views were to be had across the valley

The side tanks required replenishing along the way.

In spite of testing gradients, the little loco put in a gutsy performance

The best of the Autumn colours were over by the time we got there, two or three weeks earlier, the views must have been even more spectacular

Arrival at the line's terminus at Devil's Bridge didn't mean much of a rest for the crew as they were soon hard at work cleaning up anything that might possibly have got grubby on the way.

Cleaning the motion

It was interesting to note the use of mechanical lubricators, the sort of thing you'd expect to find on a King or a Castle, not on much smaller GWR locos.

Oil delivered the easy way

The buffer  and brake pipes (air brakes, though earlier on they had been vacuum) were tidily arranged on the front of the loco.

The cylinders are the same as fitted to the Steam Railmotor

Running round at devil's Bridge

Going in to hook on was a simple process taking just a few seconds to achieve.  If only it was as easy as that with our trains.

Simples!

I made the most of the opportunity to spend the first section of the return journey on the footplate.

The controls were pretty much laid in standard GWR style

Pulling away from Devil's Bridge

The line at the Devil's Bridge end twists and turns through some remarkable scenery:

Sometimes in tight cuttings....

...sometimes through rain...

... and sometimes clinging on to a narrow ledge for dear life.

The firebox was wider than it was long:

And before long we were back down in Aberystwyth waiting for the next round trip.

Coaling up from a wagon on the far side

Ashing out was a simple job, open a small flap on the ashpan and pull out the tiny amount of ash.  No need to get underneath the loco with a hose pipe and rake here.

If only all of our locos were this easy to ash out.

In no time at all, they were building up the fire again for the next round trip:

Number 8 at Aberystwyth

The mortal remains of number 7, Owain Glyndwr are mostly to be found under these tarpaulins:

Hopefully not too much longer before she steams again.

I had another trip out on the footplate for part of the way up, this time the weather was rather damp, though mercifully the cab was nice, warm and dry.

Into the rain

Taking water again

I switched with Derek for the last section, he got the better of the weather:

It was quite a pleasant view when the sun did choose to shine.

The second trip saw a fairly lengthy lay over at Devil's Bridge, long enough to take a walk around the three bridges and Devil's Bridge Falls.

Why it took three bridges is beyond me, the Severn is a much bigger river near Bristol and only has two.  Three is just being greedy!

Three bridges.

The usual suspects poked their faces through one of those photo frame thingies, only one of whom managed to pull the look off with any credibility.  I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide which one.

George

Laura

Derek

Waterfall photos work best if you can slow the shutter speed down to around a second or two, so that you get a nice ghosting effect on the water.  Not having brought a tripod with me, I had to improvise a bit using anything that looked like it might be stable enough to rest a camera on.  I think that I got away with it.

Devil's Bridge Falls

Devil's Bridge Falls

Devil's Bridge Falls

Most of us lined up for a photo by the falls.

Ian was hiding

Ed & Laura wanted a souvenir photo of the weekend as well, which I have yet to forward to them.  Very remiss of me. I'll send it soon Ed!

Ed & Laura

A final glimpse of number 8, Llewelyn at Devil's Bridge in the fading light, before it was time to catch the train back down to Aberystwyth and then set off on the long drive home. 

Ready to head back

It was a fabulous weekend, enjoyed by all concerned.  Thank you very much to Bill Tyndall for organising our day at the Talyllyn Railway on the Saturday and Will Smith for the same at the VOR on the Sunday.  Thanks to the crew, Jack & Chris on the VOR, to George for driving us all there and back and to Tina for organising the weekend for us.  Needless to say, plans are already afoot for a similar tour to some different lines for the same time next year. 


The Cornishman came through my letter box a few days ago and a quick flick through it in a moment when I was procrastinating from writing this blog revealed that the Permanent Way gang had paid a visit to the Vale of Rheidol Railway in July.  Sometimes it's a very small world indeed.

And finally, there really is no getting away from the GWSR.  This last weekend involved yours truly being tied up with one of those contractual obligation family event weekends in darkest Cornwall.  Chapel Amble is about as far from what used to be the North Cornwall Railway at St Kew Highway as Winchcombe station is from Winchcombe.  You'd be forgiven then for thinking that the pictures for sale on the wall of the village pub would be mostly local Cornish coastal scenes and the few railway related ones would be of West Countries or T9's hauling the Atlantic Coast Express over Little Petherick Bridge into Padstow or perhaps a Beattie Well Tank trundling a load of china clay wagons on the Boscarne to Wenford Bridge line.  Well you'd have been right about the Cornish coastal scenes, they of course were much in evidence, but for the railway related paintings, there was this delightful water colour entitled "Toddington".  It seems that the artist has relatives in the vicinity of the line and occasionally draws inspiration from it.  The loco is 6960 Raveningham Hall which hasn't been on the line for quite some time now and curiously it is sporting a light engine head lamp code, yet there is no stock in platform 2 for it to be running around.  Still, it was very reasonably priced and needless to say is no longer for sale.

Raveningham Hall at Toddington Station