Bygones farewells
THE Ffestiniog Railway’s annual celebration of its history was a sombre one as it became a farewell event for three of its veteran locomotives.
The Bygones Weekend, formerly the Victorian Weekend, is an opportunity for the FR to bring out its Victorian-era locomotives and rolling stock as well as its more modern historical fleet to celebrate the line’s history, with visitors dressed in period attire and the iconic gravity train in operation.
This year’s event took place over three days, October 7-9, but was a somewhat smaller affair than previously as the railway had just six locomotives available for the long-distance trains it operates to Tan-y-Bwlch and Blaenau Ffestiniog – with two withdrawn after and one even during the event.
Small England 0-4-0STT No. 4 Palmerston was the second of the class to bid farewell as its boiler certificate was due to expire at the end of November, with classmate No. 2 Prince having left traffic during the summer for the same reason, leaving No. 5 Welsh Pony – which completed restoration in 2020 – as the railway’s sole-operating George England-built locomotive.
Also bidding farewell was double Fairlie No. 12 David Lloyd George, the stripping of which commenced on October 10 to see the overhaul swiftly completed as classmate No. 10 Merddin Emrys is now the only operating member of this design left on the railway.
One unexpected and unfortunate early withdrawal was that of Hunslet 2-4-0STT No. 589 Blanche, which was failed during the Saturday with leaking superheater ball joints. It had a spell of bad luck over the weekend; this failure combined with steaming issues caused by a batch of poor-quality coal, resulting in the last full-line round trip on the Friday evening arriving back at Porthmadog some two hours late, having had to make several stops to rebuild pressure on the outward journey. The same issue occurred on the first trip on the Saturday morning, when the late-running train made it as far as Ddualt before David Lloyd George attached to the rear and pulled it
back from there almost to time on the return pathing. It ran one final half-line trip that afternoon, aided by 4wDM Planet locomotive No. 3687 Upnor Castle.
The coal issue plagued Palmerston
on the Sunday’s last train, which too was meant to run to Blaenau Ffestiniog but, having had to stop twice after Rhiw Goch for a ‘blow-up’, was terminated at Tany-Bwlch to avoid as late an arrival back at Porthmadog as had been experienced on Friday.
Perhaps the unexpected star of the event was Lynton & Barnstaple 2-6-2T Manning Wardle replica Lyd,
which operated two trips each day on the Friday and Saturday between Porthmadog and Beddgelert, before taking on Blanche’s two Tan-y-Bwlch trips on the Sunday; for the Sunday trips across the Welsh Highland stretch were operated by NGG16 Beyer Garratt 2-6-2+2-6-2T No. 97, which cut a comical image towering over the squat bug-box carriages that formed part of its train.
A regular fixture for these events are photographic sessions at Boston Lodge, outside the old locomotive shed, with the four England locomotives lined up together for this year’s morning sessions. A Friday evening line-up of First World War locomotives was arranged with Alco 2-6-2T Mountaineer (built 1916), Baldwin 4-6-0T No. 608 (1917), 4wPM Simplex Mary Ann (1917) and Baldwin 2-4-0DM Moelwyn (1918) positioned around Porthmadog station between 7pm and 9.30pm. A night shoot on the Saturday at Minffordd starred Welsh Pony and David Lloyd George on the Victorian stock, with the bulbs in the station lamps changed to offer an improved period atmosphere.
Tours of the railway’s workshop facilities at Boston Lodge were also available, which gave a rare glimpse of some of the in-house overhaul and contract projects taking place, including the new-build Double Fairlie No. 8 James Spooner. Tour participants were also offered an insight to plans for improving the interpretation of the site following the successful £3.1 million National Lottery Heritage Grant awarded to the FR last October.