Driver's Eye View - Welsh Highland Railway (Rheilffordd Eryri) - Porthmadog to Beddgelert
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2023
- I'd like to say a big thank you to Dave the driver, Roger the fireman and Claire for arranging everything.
The Welsh Highland Railway holds a special place in my childhood memories because the Aberglaslyn Pass was a favourite place for my grandfather to take me. Back in the mid sixties there was little sign of a railway apart from the bridge to nowhere, another rickety old bridge over the Afon Glaslyn (river) with a plank in the middle to walk on and some short tunnels and one long one that was very dark. Childhood memories tend to be a bit sketchy and my grandfather sometimes embellished the truth, I'm not sure whether or not Ivor the engine and Jones the steam ever actually graced the rails next to the river, but why let the truth get in the way of good story?
The Glaslyn Pass was like a magnet, I visited many times over the years and I learned that the story my grandfather told me of a short lived narrow gauge railway through the gorge was indeed true. Sometimes there would be rumours that some enthusiast group or other was going to reopen the line, but it was an obvious lost cause, it had been closed longer than it had been open and in places it was difficult to determine the actual route of the railway. The rumours persisted and eventually rails were laid along long part of the closed Caernarfon to Afon Wen Railway as far as Dinas the former terminal of the WHR. I travelled on one of the first trains between Caernarfon and Dinas, by then it was clear that the possibility of once again being able to travel by narrow gauge train to Porthmadog might be more than a pipe dream. There were still many hurdles to overcome, but nevertheless I looked forward to my annual visits to photograph the rail head inching its way towards Beddgelert. The Forestry Commission Camp site served by the Welsh Highland Railway's Meillionen Halt became the destination for many family holidays, at first it was difficult to determine where the railway once ran, but as the years passed, the route was cleared, fences erected and eventually the railhead made its way past the campsite, culminating is being woken one morning by the sound of a diesel locomotive propelling a works train past our caravan. In 2001 work was bought to a halt by an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease for a year or so, there were issues with the National Trust and trains were not allowed to terminate at Beddgelert, meaning the line had to be completed all the way to Hafod y Llyn before trains could carry passengers. Rhyd Ddu became the limit of passenger working for what seemed like an eternity, although in reality work on the railway was continuing, finally trains started running to new temporary termini at Hafod y Llyn in 2009 and Pont Croesor in 2010. The dream of once again being able to travel by narrow gauge train from Dinas to Porthmadog became a reality in 2012 with the start of through running between Caernarfon and Porthmadog
The Welsh Highland Railway (Welsh: Rheilffordd Eryri) is a 25-mile (40.2km) long, 1 ft 11 1⁄2 ins (597 mm) narrow gauge heritage railway in the Welsh county of Gwynedd, operating between Caernarfon to Porthmadog.
01:51 - Porthmadog
02:49 - Britannia Bridge
04:59 - Snowdon Street
05:45 - Cambrian Coast Railway
06:14 - Porthmadog bypass
06:34 - Welsh Highland Heritage Railway
06:46 - Pen-y-Mount Junction, Station
12:45 - Pont Croesor
15:01 - Afon Glaslyn
15:27 - B4410 (road)
24:39 - Hafod y Llyn
26:11 - A4085 (road)
27:22 - Nantmor
29:07 - Aberglaslyn No.4 Tunnel (292 metres)
30:07 - Aberglaslyn Pass
30:21 - Aberglaslyn No.3 Tunnel (9 metres)
30:34 - Aberglaslyn No.2 Tunnel (29 metres)
33:10 - Afon Glaslyn (river)
33:22 & 33:37 - A498 (road)
35:49 - Goat Tunnel or No.1 Tunnel (38 Metres)
36:37 - Beddgelert
To watch videos I made documenting the reopening of the WHR, please click on the following links - • Part 1 - Welsh Highlan... • Part 2 - Welsh Highlan... • Part 3 - Welsh Highlan...
Map 1:12 - Google Earth/Maps
Map 1:18 - www.openrailwaymap.org/ - Use of the 'OpenRailwayMap' mark is licenced by the OpenStreetMap Foundation
To find out more about the railway or to book your own Welsh Highland Railway adventure please click on this link - www.festrail.co.uk/
That was outstanding, such beautiful countryside, took my breath away. Thanks for this.
Hi, I'm pleased you enjoyed it, I always look forward to my next trip to Snowdonia, it's one of the most beautiful places in the UK.
Absolutely gorgeous territory, well done video, as usual Tim, you are the best !!!
Thank you for your kind comment, it is appreciated, although the real heroes are all the people who made the dream of once again seeing trains on the Welsh Highland Railway a reality.
No need to travel abroad, Tim will bring GB railways to your computer. What fantastic scenery is to be had here. Thank you Tim
Hello Keith, Britain has some of the worlds best heritage railways and I feel privileged to live in the UK, although it is nice to sneak a peek at some of trains overseas. All the best. Tim.
Hello Tim. Thank you for another wonderful production. I thoroughly enjoyed the train ride through the Welsh countryside. In particular, I enjoyed the long straight stretches of rail where both sides of the track you see meadows and grazing fields with sheep and cows. A very enjoyable train ride full of spectacular scenery of the Welsh inland. May you have the energy and strength to continue providing us with such lovely train rides.
Hello, I'm pleased you enjoyed the wonderful Welsh countryside as seen from this train. I've still got a few years travelling left in me before I get too old to do it any more and I intend to make the most of that time. It's nice to know you enjoy these videos 😊.
Better weather for this trip. Great video.
My luck had to change at some point 😉.
Absolut super Video! Daumen hoch!
Vielen Dank, ich freue mich, dass es Ihnen gefallen hat 😊
Tim, excellent! as always. Action packed with personal features, like the cab detail and run around. Thanks for posting. Looking out for the return journey, soon.
Hello Peter, I'm glad you enjoyed the ride 😊.
Just stunning!
I'm glad you enjoyed the ride, the real credit goes to the far sighted volunteers, donors and staff who made this trip possible.
So nice videos
Thank you, it's nice to know you enjoy these videos.
Fantastic....more train video
I'm pleased you enjoyed it.
I always love your journeys and beautiful scenery l àm àlways fascinated by the steam engine's you have most of our steam engine's are in museum's sad even to think about it God bless you and your family All of the hard work you put into your Work and God bless the people who are watching this video Warren and Ingrid Melbourne Australia 🇦🇺👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍😃🚂🚂🚂🚂
Hello Warren, I am lucky to live in the UK, probably the best place in the world for working steam locomotives, although I have just had the pleasure of riding with steam on the Mary Valley Rattler in Gympie, Australia 😊.
Fantastic! Cheers from Oz.
Hello Jim, I'm pleased you enjoyed the ride 😊.
Good video, like
Thank you, I'm pleased you enjoyed it 😊.
Nice lookin Welsh countryside ! Are those words Welsh dialect ??? LOL😄😄Yet, i think this was British countryside at its best ! ! ! Cheers .
Wales is beautiful and there is no better way to see it, than from a narrow gauge train hauled by one of the weird and wonderful steam locomotives of the WHR and FR. I'm pleased you enjoyed I the ride 😊.
The railway runs through an area where more than half of the population speak Welsh, which is not a dialect but a language. Nearly all the local place names are Welsh, road signs and public notices are bilingual, and schools teach in Welsh and English ... just like Tim, I used to walk through the abandoned tunnels in the Aberglaslyn Pass when I was much, much younger, and the village where we spent our holidays was entirely Welsh-speaking, which led to some rather odd conversations ...
Hi Tim! At the beginning a small talk with the heater and off we go👍. At the top there is an extra water tender to quench the locomotive's thirst. Another fine video. Best regards from Hans and Cheers🍻🇦🇹.
Hello Hans, the Garratt locomotive is a weird and wonderful contraption, powerful and still able to run round tight bends on narrow gauge rails. Porthmadog station is a great place to see some of the world's most unusual narrow gauge locomotives. Cheers. Tim.
Hallo Hans, auf Englisch heißt der Heizer "Fireman"; "Heater" ist das englische Wort für "Heizung". 😀
@@roderickjoyce6716 Da bin ich Dir sehr dankbar über diese Information. Ich lerne in letzter Zeit immer etwas mehr Englisch dazu. Ich habe es ja nur ein Jahr lang gelernt und das war im Schuljahr 72/73, also 50 Jahre her. Danke nochmal, sehr nett von Dir. Gruß Hans 🍻🇦🇹.
Nice video
Thank you 😊.
Yet another lovely train ride. Thanks, Tim.
The shot of the carriage interior while in the tunnel makes me wonder where the electricity comes from. It could in theory be supplied from the engine via a steam powered generator, but my guess would be that the lights are powered by batteries on each carriage which are charged from a dynamo attached to one of the axles of each carriage. Do you happen to know?
I'm remembering one train ride over here in Aus. where the carriage I was assigned to had no battery power so the lights only came on while the carriage was moving, and wavered very annoyingly in intensity due to "play" in the linkage (a leather strap connecting the axle to the dynamo). Partway through the journey, I and the other passengers in the carriage were allowed to move to a different carriage due to this problem, even though in theory we had assigned seating.
Hello, It's nice to know you enjoyed the video. I tried in vain to find out about the electricity, the carriages do have electric connections between them and the kitchen carriages are fitted with generators, but that is as much as I could find out. Looking at the front and back of the locomotives there is no provision for an electrical connection, just the draw gear and a brake pipe. Your experience with a carriage in Australia sounds interesting, I have occasionally come across carriages with no lights on the main line, mostly in Germany. It is likely that the carriages generate their own electricity using a belt drive between an axle and a generator as is usually case plus a battery to keep power on when the train isn't moving. Maybe someone will see your comment and supply a definitive answer.
Electric lighting in older passenger cars was actually powered by batteries that were placed in cabinets under the floor of the car. On two-axle or three-axle wagons, the dynamo was driven by a V-belt from a pulley located on the axle between the wheels, the gear ratio was usually 1/10 to 1/15 (pulley/dynamo). Undercarriage cars had a dynamo mounted on the undercarriage boom towards the center of the car, the drive and gearing was similar. There was also a regulator for the batteries - a device switching between power supply from the batteries and from the dynamos, also controlling the recharging of the batteries while driving. More modern wagons had dynamos from the outside of the chassis, the drive was handled by a shaft and a gear between the axle axis and the dynamo shaft. These also had battery boxes, dynamos were on both carriages. In the carriage in the boarding areas there were switchboards where the regulator was located. The most modern carriages are powered via the "Central Power Source", a block of electronics and batteries that are powered from the continuous 3kV line for the train (heating, lighting, air conditioning, information system...) The oldest lighting was oil and kerosene lamps, or even gas with storage also under the floor of the car, but I didn't even think about that when looking at the lighting in the car. Otherwise, the experience with the lighting falling out on the train - the cause could also be a short circuit on the batteries, or a malfunctioning regulator. Both malfunctions can only be eliminated in workshops.
@@Timsvideochannel1 The electric connections could be for communication, but if the kitchen carriages have generators then my first guess would be that they are being used to supply the rest of the carriages via those connections. Thanks for the information.
I usually enjoy your videos. There's something fascinating about watching a driver's eye view of a train journey.
@@melkiorwiseman5234There are speakers in each carriage, indicating the existence of a public address system, presumably connected via the electrical connections between each carriage. Driver's eye videos give a more complete view of the route, I used to buy all of the video125 videos as they came out, there was nothing like them at the time, now TH-cam offers a good selection covering most of the world's railways.
@@martinmackennyHi, although this comment was to melkiorwiseman 5234, I appreciate the time you put into your comprehensive reply, I found it interesting to read.
Nice stuff. I took note of one of the passing loops with the spring-loaded switching. Such a method could work well here if the Fassifern-to-Toronto line is restored. A passing loop at Blackalls Park, roughly half-way between Fassifern and Toronto could employ such a switch.
Hello Neil, believing Totonto was in Canada, I looked up "Fassifern-to-Toronto line" to discover that it is in your neck of the woods and from the sound of things, it should never have closed. Spring points do help to reduce the cost of running a railway, so it would make good sence to use them at Blackalls Park should the line ever reopen.
@@Timsvideochannel1 I once rode a train(a two-car rail motor, I think it was a 660/760 class set). It would've been in the last year of the line's operation. And Toronto here in Australia is the namesake of the Canadian town. And quite right, the line should *NEVER* have been closed!
@@neilforbes416 it's now a cycle path
@neilforbea416 interesting
@neilforbes416 Toronto line was closed due to poor track maintenance and low passenger usage.
The cabin of the locomotive looks like a coffee machine😃😃😃
Those modern coffee machines you see in places like Costa have almost as many valves and steaming outlets as this locomotive, I wonder which makes the better coffee?☕🍵😉.
I hope that was a variable or spring switch they just went through at 14:18
That was a sprung switch as used on most passing loops on both the Welsh Highland and the Ffestiniog Railway's
Witaj, Tim. Lubię kiedy w nocy już usypiam a z daleka dobiega mnie gwizd pociągu. Ale rankiem ? W domku letniskowym? No nie wiem....Dziękuję, pozdrawiam.😀
Witam, dźwięk i ruch pociągu usypia wiele osób. Mieszkam na końcu linii kolejowej podmiejskiej prowadzącej z Londynu i pracownicy kolei często znajdują zmęczonych pasażerów wciąż w pociągu, ponieważ zasnęli i spóźnili się na stację. Wszystkiego najlepszego. Tim.
14:16 track change pointers are in wrong direction yet the train moved...how ? I need explanation from any person who can give clarity
The switch/points are sprung loaded, the weight of the train pushes the blades over allowing the train to pass safely through and trains coming from the other direction will automatically take the other route, making the operation of the passing loop in effect automatic.
@@Timsvideochannel1 this is not there on full fledged big trains
@@AeZothesh This system is only used where trains will be travelling at low speeds.
WhichCountryRailroad
“Wales”, one of the four countries that make up the British Isles along with England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Narrow-gauge ?
@top40researcher31, it's 597 mm gauge 🍻🇦🇹.
@@johannperaus6890 thanks
Are you trying to wind Neil up? 😊 - Hans is correct, the gauge is 1 foot 11 1⁄2 inches (597 mm).
@@Timsvideochannel1 Tim, I'll try with beer🍻👍.
@@johannperaus6890 1 foot 11 1⁄2 inches (597 mm) - only the English could come up with two such different ways to describe the same distance 😊although a beer or three does help when trying to understand another language. 🍺Tim.
The engine should have carried on to Caenarfon, that's where the Welsh Highland Railway truly ends. Why did the engine run round at Beddgelert instead? Shame on the Driver for not taking the engine up to Caenarfon first, lol. You would have loved that part of the journey, I'm sure. I was hoping you could show the rest of the route from Beddgelert to Caenarfon, as my Mum and I have never travelled that far.
Hi, the following day the railway arranged for me to cover the whole route between Porthmadog and Caernarfon, as it turned out it rained all day although I still mounted a camera on the locomotive in the hope that the rain might stop, to my surprise the video turned out to be reasonably watchable, in fact the rain added to the ambience of the experience. I will be uploading that video it in a week or two. The railway offers a range of services, some starting from Porthmadog, others from Caernarfon with the tourist town of Beddgelert being the intended destination. I think these services are aimed at regular tourists, rather than railway enthusiasts, being cheaper (important these days) and at around an hour, a length of time better suited to families with children. Trains also run over the whole route on some days of the week, for people intending to ride the whole line it is worth consulting the timetable or phoning the lovely ladies in the booking office. I covered the whole route about 6 years ago, please click on these links to see those videos - th-cam.com/video/pT0mKjwTXUw/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/pg34JpOIC4M/w-d-xo.html
0:42 The Garrat worked in the *Cape Colonies* in the southern part of the African continent. The nation, *South Africa* came into *LEGITIMATE* existence in 1994 witn Mr. *Nelson Mandela* as the country's *FIRST PRESIDENT!*
Good research
@@Mediawatcher2023 Not research, just recognition that Mr. Nelson Mandela was the first *LEGITIMATE* President of South Africa. Prior to 1994, South Africa should not have been given any recognition whatsoever, due to the *putrid* Apartheid laws.
@@neilforbes416 sorry Neil I have comment
@@Mediawatcher2023 None, but I wanted to make a point of duly recognising Mr. Mandela's role in being the first *LEGITIMATE* President.(answering your question, what's Mr. Mandela's connection with trains).
@@neilforbes416 tims videos is all about trains
Question!!!
WHY do two people showing the Hitler salute at the level crossing from minute 14:31???
This is unacceptable !!!
This can be seen quite clearly at minute 14:33!!!
Has NO ONE noticed this yet?
That is not a Hitler salute, they are in fact pointing at an Osprey (a large bird of prey)
@@Timsvideochannel1 Oh really?
How do you know that?
@@KerstinBohlin I saw the birds they were pointing at and it is as clear as day that they are pointing with one finger, the other fingers are not out straight as would be the case with a salute.
Could you see so, I looked at it at even higher resolution and there you can see that it is not the entire hand that points to the sky, but only individual fingers ...
Sorry, was probably a false alarm!
It is probably true what you write!!!
Excuse me, but in Germany this crappy Nazism just so takes hold to the full extent and who knows
Könnte man so sehen, ich habe es mir bei noch höhere Auflösung angesehen und da sieht man, dass es nicht die gesamte Hand ist, die gen Himmel zeigt, sondern nur einzelne Finger ...
Sorry, war wohl ein Fehlarlarm!
Es stimmt wohl, was Sie schreiben!!!
Entschuldigung, aber in Deutschland greift dieses scheiß Nazitum gerade so im vollen Umfang durch und wer weiß, wo das bei uns noch (wieder) hinführt!
Da sieht man schon mal etwas, was nicht ist - Sorry
A beautiful journey thanks Tim, Wales is a really a unspoiled country rugged but so beautiful, "I HAVE DEFINITELY GOT NO COMMENT TO MAKE ON THE GAUGE MY LIPS ARE SEALED".🤣😁🦘
Hello Robert, this part of Wales is very scenic and the train is a great way to admire the views without spoiling them. I don't think Neil has mentioned the gauge yet, but the day is still young 😊.
😁🍺@@Timsvideochannel1