Tuesday 30th - Back from foreign climes

 Well, back from North Wales anyway, where many small railways were sampled, of which more in a bit.

But first, a productive day despite the heat.

Starting off in the RBr, I was disappointed to find it hadn't been finished off in my absence, come on chaps! Robert started the day with the router on the window pelmets.

Later on he and Chris were permanently fitting some of the beading on the lower panels. You hold, I'll glue...

Then on it goes, a nail gun helped persuade it to stay.

Elsewhere Richard had the honour of doing the first bit of varnishing in the saloon interior. These panels will be partially covered by the trim pieces that bridge between each pelmet, so a couple of coats of varnish before they're partially obscured.

Further down the corridor there was a bit of sanding that needed doing on one of the internal door frames taken care of by Roger.

Kevin found a good job on a hot day, sitting down! These are all the old glass shelves from the RBr, we've changed the interior so these aren't required any more but they're still being labelled and going into storage, you never know when they might be useful.

In the barn it was the pad sander symphony with Stu, Ian and yours truly on the case. The Malvern side is almost all done bar some fiddly bits round the window sliders, meanwhile the Cotswold side is well on the way.

After a week's break from me cracking the whip on the wagons, Maurice set to filling the screw holes on the first section of planking on the Mica. Forgive me Churchward for I have sinned, with several hundred screws to hold the planks in, I opted for modern pozidrive screws, but deeply countersunk and filled no one will ever see.

Later on there was a much grottier job to make a start on, cleaning and painting the spoked wheels, Paul and Maurice took a set each and did what they could. At some point we'll have to nudge the wagon along half a turn or so.

Speaking of grotty, Dave spent some time on the leather straps for the ladders in the BCK, which were in a pretty grotty state. various methods were used to clean them up and by the end of the day they were looking a bit more presentable.

Out in the coach Pam continued the repaint of the guard's compartment, working her way around various fiddly bits and pieces.

Certainly a hot day to be on the footplate, particularly on P&O, but they were a happy smiling crew nonetheless.

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In some ways a bit of a busman's holiday, as no fewer than 6 railways visited in 8 days, but it was still a welcome break from the usual.

Following on from day 1 at Welshpool, there was just time the next morning to admire the old mainline station building with a panoramic picture (hence the apparent curve!), now a shop and restaurant since the original alignment was moved to accommodate a bypass. Rather a grand building for a relatively modest market town. 

Next railway stop was Porthmadog for phase 1, Welsh Highland Railway. The long tourist trains are all in the charge of these powerful South African NG15 class Garratts.

Nope, spent enough money, I am but a poor and humble student (well, graduate awaiting a job start I suppose now!) These newbuild narrow gauge Pullmans are extremely impressive and look very comfortable. Amazing craftsmanship has gone into them.

Standard class was in crimson & cream, nice! As we passed a service from Carnarvon at Rhyd Ddu in the charge of another NG15.

The scenery really is stunning on this railway, and the trains so long and the line so twisty you can get some great views of the train you're on.

One for Dave, at Dinas we passed replica Lyd on a shorter shuttle train.

At Carnarvon with the very old and the very new, Castle built 1283, brand new terminus station built 2019. Not very heritage, but I suppose that's not so important here.

Our Garratt ran round and took water while we did a lap of the Castle walls.

Soon after return to Porthmadog we had a first sight of the unique Double Fairlie design on a rake of vintage Ffestiniog stock, very nice!

Worthy of mention the trip back to base was via the Cambrian Coast line, itself another very scenic line, a quick snap of Barmouth bridge which has recently undergone extensive work. I'm off to join Network Rail's graduate civil engineering programme in September, this is the sort of thing I might be involved in.

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The weather turned distinctly Welsh for the day down to Aberystwyth. Vale of Rheidol is pure great Western, except, oh! Another SAR Garratt. Oi, that's taking the work of a local Rheidol tank!

Ah that's better, we'll have one of those thank you.

Before that though, a site appreciation. Very smart new brick built station entrance building, I could be convinced that was GWR.

Where bricks couldn't be justified, there were several pre-fab buildings in GWR style wrinkly tin. Definitely much better than a B&Q shed...

A look inside the newly opened museum in the old former engine shed was well worthwhile (and crucially, dry!) Very appropriately Dukedog 9017 was on loan from Bluebell, this was its home shed back in the day. 4ft gauge 'Fire Queen' from Penrhyn faces it.

We humble Mk1 preservationists bow down in honour to this stunning restored Isle of Man coach. absolutely flawless.

Ah, a GWR wagon, we know about those... 

Before we left Palmerston on loan from F&WHR trotted by with a short test set, that was fun.

We clattered up the line in the railway's original 1930s carriages. We braved the open on the way up despite the weather...

But retreated to an enclosed version for the way down. It's lovely to have original engines on original carriages on their original line, and all in superb condition. They too have a set in choc & cream and a set in crimson & cream! The latter was supposedly reserved for corridor stock in BR days but it is nonetheless authentic I believe, Someone must have made an executive decision in Aberystwyth back in the day!

At Devil's Bridge Kerr Stuart 'Wren was doing driver experience on an isolated siding, great idea!

After the obligatory waterfall and devil's bridge walk, we returned behind the Garratt, which did at least afford the opportunity to grab a photo of No.8 as we passed it again at Aberffrwd.

Part 2 to follow!