Heritage On The Move
- Cambrian Railway Partnership
- May 25
- 2 min read
Travelling in the blazing sunshine up to Porthmadog set to meet Chairman of the Cambrian Railway Partnership, Neil Scott.
We met on the platform of the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway. Neil, dressed in his driver costume, volunteers as a driver for the Ffestiniog Railway in his spare time, but alas there were no steam trains today because, although we love the glorious sunshine we have been having, this can cause issues with lineside fires. This is not unique to the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway, it happening to all steam railways across Wales at the moment due to the sparks on very dry ground. It’s a real worry for the railways and how to deal with it, as some of the areas are remote and not accessible.
Some railways are switching to diesel locos so that visitors can still enjoy a wonderful train journey through the breathtaking Welsh landscape. And this is exactly what we did. After being introduced to driver Chris I hoped on the footplate of Upnor Castle with my trusty ear defenders – it was quite noisy but really good fun.
Sat on a small wooden seat, we travelled 7.5 miles through some beautiful countryside and stopped for a cup of tea and some cake, I highly recommend the Coffee and Walnut Cake, at Tan-y-Bwlch Tea Room. Neil and Chris spoke passionately about the Ffestiniog railway and shared so much interesting information.
With my ear defenders firmly back on, we headed back to the footplate and with the engine the wrong way round we headed back to Porthmadog..
Our Chairman Neil said:
“I had a wonderful 5 days out in Wales over the latter part of last week and this weekend. The extremely hot weather has posed some challenges to how we operate the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways with our risk to starting lineside fires increased. This resulted in some unusual operating practices - combining trains, extra diesel traction and trains spraying the lineside with water to reduce fire risk.
We also hosted the Cambrian Railway Partnership's Development Officer for a visit on Upnor Castle (Deb will come back for a steam engine ride later this year)”
We are very lucky to have so many brilliant home-grown attractions in Wales. They are well worth a visit.
Do you know? What film with Sean Connery in was filmed near Porthmadog?
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