The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

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FWLR
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by FWLR » Tue Dec 13, 2022 6:26 am

Great photos Andrew, love the train with those vans.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by FWLR » Tue Dec 13, 2022 6:48 am

They are that good I commented twice... :lol

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Andrew
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Dec 19, 2022 11:09 am

Hello again,

Having completed another trio of slate wagons, and posed them for their official photos, they needed a test run.

I suppose I could have just coupled the three of them to the battery shunter and given them a quick trundle but I fancied seeing how they'd look in the rest of the slate train AND I still had "Palmerston" prepared from the previous weekend. So here's what the test run looked like:

December slate train 1.jpg
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December slate train 2.jpg
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December slate train 3.jpg
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December slate train 4.jpg
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There was seemingly no-one at work in the quarry (understandable - working slate when it's minus whatever must be particularly unpleasant...), so the train returned empty. I'm working on that though...

Anyway, I'm pleased to say that the wagons ran very nicely. I'm pretty impressed with the England too - individually those wagons are light enough, but I've packed as much lead as I could into them, and the full rake has 28 axles, but the loco pulls them up my 1:40 gradients and round my 3'-ish curves quite happily...

I'm guessing that will probably be the last train of the year - if I keep up my usual tradition, the next will be on New Year's Day...

Cheers all,

Andrew.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by philipy » Mon Dec 19, 2022 11:45 am

That is a wonderful looking train, Andrew. Well done.
Philip

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Trevor Thompson » Mon Dec 19, 2022 12:32 pm

I do appreciate a long train of empty slate wagons! Very Ffestiniog.

Trevor

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Dec 19, 2022 6:08 pm

philipy wrote: ↑Mon Dec 19, 2022 11:45 am That is a wonderful looking train, Andrew. Well done.
Thank you! I am pleased with how it looks - I think it helps that every wagon is different, even if only subtly so...

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Dec 19, 2022 6:15 pm

Trevor Thompson wrote: ↑Mon Dec 19, 2022 12:32 pm I do appreciate a long train of empty slate wagons! Very Ffestiniog.
One of the good things about having a small garden is that it makes 14 wagons look like a decent length slate train!

The combined rake does have a very Ffestiniog feel, despite containing some WHR wagons - no doubt the England at the front helps! For New Year's Day I'm thinking I might go for WHR train. I've got 4 WHR "crate" type wagons, but they also used opens for carrying slate, and pinched Ffestiniog wagons too. With the Baldwin in the front and a WHR brake van on the back, I should be able to make a fairly accurate train...

Cheers,
Andrew

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by ge_rik » Mon Dec 19, 2022 8:48 pm

Very atmospheric

Rik
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by StuartJ » Tue Dec 20, 2022 11:19 am

Very nice. Shades of Princess in the last few months of working in 1946.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sun Jan 01, 2023 6:48 pm

Hello all - and Happy New Year!

I'm not sure how many years it is now that I've run a train on New Year's Day, but I kept up the tradition this year, and with a first for me too - a reasonably accurate Welsh Highland slate train. Unlike the Ffestiniog, the Welsh Highland used open wagons as well as the familiar "crate" type for the conveyance of slate, which I replicated in my train. I included a "borrowed" Ffestiniog wagon too, another fairly typical feature of Welsh Highland goods trains.

In truth, the train looked better than it ran, with some under-weighted wagons, debris on the line and "Russell"'s rather track-shy pony trucks contributing to some fairly erratic running, but nothing that can't be cured - and it felt good to start the year as I mean to go on.

All the best,

Andrew.

NYD 23 A.jpg
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NYD 23 B.jpg
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NYD 23 C.jpg
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NYD 23 F.jpg
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by FWLR » Mon Jan 02, 2023 6:37 am

Happy New Year πŸ₯³ Andrew. :wav:

Looking πŸ‘€ good your πŸš‚.

All The Best

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by ge_rik » Mon Jan 02, 2023 8:13 am

Full marks for keeping up the tradition. I 'once' many years ago ran my trains on Boxing Day and a couple of years ago ran a train on New Year's Eve. But have never repeated either experience.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Fri Jun 02, 2023 10:33 am

EXCELLENT ARRANGEMENTS: PUNCTUAL TRAINS

That's how the Cambrian News reported the opening of the completed Welsh Highland Railway, on 1st June 1923, recording the departure of the first train from Porthmadog at 8:10 am.

Naturally, yesterday morning, EXACTLY a century later, I was in the back garden...

WHR 100 1.jpg
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The first train was pulled by Ffestiniog Small England loco "Princess", and comprised three carriages - all FR ones, I'd guess, from photos of early WHR services. I recreated it as best I could, with my own Small England and the closest rake of carriages I could muster, and am pleased to report that the train left bang on time...

WHR 100 2.jpg
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WHR 100 3.jpg
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WHR 100 4.jpg
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The train sat in the garden all morning while I got on with other things, but further celebratory trains ran in the afternoon - more photos to follow!

Cheers all,

Andrew

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by ge_rik » Fri Jun 02, 2023 12:09 pm

Excellent! I do like a running session with a back story.
:thumbup:

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by FWLR » Sat Jun 03, 2023 8:39 am

Great bit of history Andrew and some nice photos of some of your stock also. :thumbright:

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sat Jun 03, 2023 4:45 pm

Thanks chaps, glad you enjoyed my early morning efforts!

In the afternoon I got back out in the garden to play trains some more, starting with a further run of "Palmerston" and the FR rake:

WHR 100 5.jpg
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As the England cooled down, "Russell" raised steam, and some WHR carriages appeared, giving Trefechan an unusually busy appearance:

WHR 100 6.jpg
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"Russell" headed up to Penlan with two of the Ffestiniog carriages (where "Palmerstone also magically appeared), before trundling back down to head a mostly WHR rake, completed by an FR brake composite, which it duly pulled back up the line:

WHR 100 7.jpg
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WHR 100 8.jpg
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On its journies to and from Clarach, it passed "Palmerstone and train, creating some pleasing pictures quite reminiscent of the old WHR, I thought:

WHR 100 9.jpg
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WHR 100 10.jpg
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WHR 100 11.jpg
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WHR 100 12.jpg
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All in all, a really rather pleasant afternoon in the sunshine. I hope to do it again soon - but I need to buy some more butane first!

Cheers,

Andrew

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by FWLR » Sun Jun 04, 2023 6:54 am

Nice photos again Andrew. Too hot to be out here at the moment. It gets over 35degs in our garden in the full sun, can't manage with the heat now.... :lol: :lol:
Last edited by FWLR on Tue Jun 06, 2023 7:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Peter Butler » Sun Jun 04, 2023 10:48 am

They are lovely images Andrew, you know how to get the best out of your stock placed in the landscape.
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Old Man Aaron » Sun Jun 04, 2023 1:31 pm

Good weather, beautiful modelling, and a centenary to the minute. Can't beat that. 8)
Regards,
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by StuartJ » Mon Jun 05, 2023 1:23 pm

Excellent photos. Most atmospheric!

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