NARROW GAUGE NEWS
Small engines and vintage carriages recall early preservation years of North Wales line.
Freshly restored ‘Large England’ Welsh Pony was pressed into service just days after its first steaming (SR508), to play an unexpected vital role in hauling the Ffestiniog Railway’s first post-lockdown trains.
The 1867-built locomotive, which steamed for the first time since 1940 on June 27 at Boston Lodge, had barely been run-in when it hauled its first revenue-earning passenger train in over 80 years on July 18, a special service for those who have supported the 0-4-0STT’s restoration. Public services on the FR resumed on July 20.
Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways commercial manager Clare Britton said: “Who’d have thought it would have become the stalwart? Many people thought when we said we’d restore it that it’d do the Victorian Weekends and that would be about it, and yet it’s in almost everyday service.
“The England engines are too small for our normal services and they’re usually limited to special events and heritage trains on the Welsh Highland, but the current situation has provided us with a wonderful opportunity to use different engines.”
It is hoped all three of the FR’s operational England locomotives will run for the first time in preservation by the end of August, once
Palmerston re-enters traffic following attention to its bottom end.
Running only as far as Tany-Bwlch, and with Welsh Pony, fellow George England Prince and Penrhyn ‘Ladies’ Linda and Blanche hauling primarily vintage compartment stock to enable social distancing, the services recall the post-1958 era of the FR, before work started to extend the line to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
“It’s just like how we were running in the 1960s,” commented Ms Britton. “We’re very pleased with how well our trains have done so far. They’re bringing in a fraction of the income that we’d normally do at this time of year, but we’ve managed to cut our costs dramatically so it’s
working really well.” She added that most of the Monday-Thursday trains were sold out, although weekends were quieter.
The current status quo is expected to last until at least the end of September but the F&WHR was hopeful of returning to Blaenau Ffestiniog later this year, if the Welsh Government relaxes its social distancing rules. Ms Britton said: “Lovely as our vintage carriages are, to expect families to travel all the way to Blaenau without a toilet on board is probably a bit too much. Plus, both the platform and toilet facilities at Blaenau are quite small, so we don’t want to risk overcrowding.”
It is for this reason that, when services on the Welsh Highland
Railway hopefully resume from
August 18, they will be running at a “much reduced” capacity and only between Caernarfon and Beddgelert so as not to overwhelm the platform and facilities at Porthmadog, the interchange between the WHR and FR.
Ms Britton added: “We know the service we’re running now is working; if we open another railway, it adds pressure on our volunteers and finances, so we’d need to ensure it was financially viable.”
She also paid tribute to the line’s volunteers, who have been “fantastic; they’ve mucked in and been wonderful hosts. Many of our local volunteers have never volunteered before so it’s great to see so many people
getting involved.”