Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway

The weather is glorious in these early days of September. The kids have gone back to school, and the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway (W&LLR) is running trains during the week until the end of the month. So it was an ideal time to go there!

An early start was required, the 07:46 train from Wilmslow to Shrewsbury where we waited about 50 minutes for the train to Welshpool. The W&LLR used to run right down through the town to the main railway line, but these days it terminates about a mile away on the northern edge of Welshpool, at Raven Square. We had a gentle stroll up through the town in plenty of time to have a cup of tea before catching the first train out of Welshpool, the 11:15.

The line was opened in 1903 to serve the farming community of the Banwy valley, and was built to the unusual gauge of 2' 6". The gauge has led to stock being acquired from such places as Austria and Hungary, which gives it a non-UK feel with the coaches having open balconies at the ends.

Peter and Malc enjoying a cuppa and a bite to eat at Welshpool 

Raven Square station this morning

Our locomotive, 'The Countess', built in 1902 by Beyer Peacock for when the line opened in 1903

'The Countess' was rebuilt by the Great Western Railway, with a GW boiler and other GW characteristics such as just one gauge glass!

Looking back from the rear balcony of our train at Raven Square Station as 'The Countess' takes to the loop line to run around the train and couple onto the front of it
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The initial climb out of Welshpool is an astonishing 1 in 29
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Passing loop at Castle Caereinion
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All but one of the crossings on the line do not have gates. At the one that does, the loco crew have to operate the gates; there are no crossing keepers on this line!

 Gates closed, we're on our way
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 Typical countryside on the line, with an occupation crossing in the foreground

 Our locomotive at the western terminus of the line, Llanfair Caereinion
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 Malc and Peter enjoying lunch in the sunshine 

Our train, comprising two of these bogie coaches, at Llanfair Caereinion

'The Countess' footplate. Just one gauge glass - GW standard practice but if I were firing her I'd feel a lot safer with two, if only because any problem with either of these absolutely vital indicators would show as a disparity. 

 Firehole door open to allow cold air in, so she won't blow off (boiler pressure was close to maximum)
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Leaving Llanfair Caereinion on the return journey. The red signal protects yard movements at the terminus from any trains on the main line entering the Terminus.

It really was a beautiful day - the very best weather for enjoying this delightful line
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 Crossing the River Banwy

Peter admires the scenery

Looking out to the balconies between the two coaches

Peter getting closer to the scenery

Crossing time again

Our loco back at Raven Square, ready for a drink

Walking back down from Raven Square to the Network Rail station we pass the Montgomery Canal with a rather strangely named museum

 The main line railway at Welshpool has been moved to make way for a road! So the original rather handsome station buildings are now remote from the railway.

From the station one can see the ridge of Long Mountain. In January this year two highly experienced pilots (one who had run a flying business from Welshpool for decades and lived in the area, the other a retired airline captain) in a Piper Navajo twin-engined aircraft, seconds from landing at Welshpool International Airport, flew into the trees on the top of this ridge in poor visibility. Both were killed. I've flown into Welshpool many times myself, the first time when it was a farm strip called 'Trehelig Farm'.

The AAIB report is here:  http://www.aaib.gov.uk/sites/aaib/publications/bulletins/august_2012/piper_pa_31_325_navajo_c_r__g_bwhf.cfm

Our train to Shrewsbury arrives and Peter makes for the front two coaches
  

The Class 158 was lightly loaded, and soon sped on its way at a good speed along the single track line to Shrewsbury

And here it is at Shrewsbury. After a short wait, another Arriva Wales train whisked us home to Wilmslow. 

Yet another great rail day out!

Welcome to those referred here from Charlie Hulme's excellent 'North Wales Coast Railway' website  (http://www.nwrail.org.uk/).I can recommend a visit to Charlie's site if you have any interest in rail, not just North Wales related.

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Getting to know Monmouthshire (and district!).

My brother lives in a remote bit of Wales; about three miles west of the Wye Valley, south west of Monmouth, south east of Raglan, and north of Chepstow. It's a delightful part of the lovely county of Monmouthshire and this week my wife Chris and myself have been staying with him and his wife.

The house... rather remote

Sue, Phil, and Chris

The house nestles in the side of a narrow but deep valley. Phil & Sue own all the land around; it's not much use for agriculture, but it'll prevent anyone building near them.

Phil's tractor shed

If there's a heritage railway nearby, I'll find it. This is a Great Western pannier tank on the Dean Forest Railway on the only wet day of the week.

Just one gauge glass, Great Western style - a bit dodgy I'd have thought

Off we go down to the Severn Estuary at Lydney. The railway was built to serve the many collieries in the Forest of Dean.

Later we visited the old Tintern Station on the long gone Wye Valley railway line. The station buildings are now a pleasant tea room and cafe, and these picnic tables are over the original (filled in) track bed between the main and island platforms.

We met some exiled Kiwis in the cafe over lunch and enjoyed some railway chatter with them. Two of them have built an 'N' gauge model railway of Tintern station when it was complete and working. The layout is displayed in an old goods waggon coupled to two ex-BR Mk2 coaches which contain a shop and some displays of Wye Valley history. The chap in the distance is operating the railway, while the other one explains it to us.

The old platforms, signal box, and in the distance the ex-BR coaches and the goods waggon

Tintern Abbey

Abbey Tintern furnace remains. The stone pillars on the right once supported a wooden channel which carried water to a water wheel which occupied the wheel pit, lower left. The water wheel powered bellows which forced air into the blast furnace in the background. The furnace produced iron used in the wire making industry, a local speciality.

The information board for the blast furnace

We drove along narrow lanes, leading to even narrower ones, and eventually to a track to the bottom of the valley beneath the house. Here was an old cider mill and a narrow bridge that carries what is still a Monmouthshire County Council maintained (not!) road.

Phil drives us back up the track from the valley bottom

Daisy, one of Phil & Sue's two cats. Affectionate, but nervous.

On the Thursday we attended the Monouthshire Show - no rain! Here Phil arrives back at our parked car having picked up the mobility scooter they hired for Sue to use at the show

One of many fine beasts competing for cups at the show

I've never seen so many different breeds of sheep

Scurry racing!

A fine dun pair! And so are the horses!

 A motorcycle stunt man performs doughnuts on a quad bike

And takes to the air... briefly!

Chris, Phil, Sue's parents, and Sue. The Wye valley down towards Chepstow is in the background.

The Monmouthshire Hunt and hounds - impressive!

Overall best in show, with a rightfully proud family

Quite a few steaks there...

Showjumping was the penultimate event in the main ring

The show closed with an exciting event I've never seen before, designed to represent the countryside obstacles encountered by the Hunt. The device above, a mas of horse-scaring foliage, was called 'The Bullfinch'. many horses refused (like the one on the left, above), some jumped it, and some (like the one on the right) just ploughed through it!

Chris, Phil, and Sue back at the house

On Friday, our final day, Phil drove us up through Monmouth to the Golden Valley, Hay-on-Wye, and up Hay Bluff. It was a glorious day with good views. Chris on 'The Bluff' above.

Chris and Phil deciding which distant peak is which, from Hay Bluff

Looking west towards the Brecon Beacons

We drove from the Bluff into the Gospel Pass, down past Llanthony Abbey (where I stayed a couple of nights back in 2008 to walk the Offa's Dyke Path on the ridge) down to here, the Crown at Pantygelli, not far outside Abergavenny. We enjoyed the last lunch of our stay here, in the sunshine with a fine view of The Skirrid hill across the valley. And it was excellent.....

.....Not least because of this - Wye Valley Brewery HPA (Herefordshire Pale Ale). Light, golden, and hoppy. A lovely pint!

Phil & Sue dropped us off after lunch at Abergavenny station, where we caught the Arriva Wales class 175 train home to Wilmslow. Two hours later, we were home.

It'd been a boozy week, what with lots of different ciders to try, and some lovely real ales. So on the journey home why not continue? A miniature bottle of White from the Arriva Wales trolley fitted the bill perfectly!

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