Garden Railway Forum

The Dolwyddelan & Fron Goch Railway today has had to follow the same footsteps as the recent closure of the MHLR. Today was the last day of traffic on the railway, with only Snowdon working, as Pheonix, Britomart and H.G.Butler are all being prepped for being taken away on the standard gauge Conwy Valley Line, but to where? anyway, here are the few pics from today:



Snowdon just outside of Dolwyddelan with a sunset before heading LE to Prince Llewellyn Quarries



At Prince Llewellyn Quarries, the crew of Snowdon kill time before heading back down to Dolwyddelan to pick up the rolling stock for the last 21:00 quarrymens train



The train prepares to leave



At Fron Goch, taken before the quarrymen arrived as the train arrived slightly early



heading back down Dolmur Goch Bank for Dolwyddelan



Then some shunting took place, and some of the older rolling stock was then to be propelled up to Fron Goch for dumping there until the managers decide whether to take them with the rest of the railway



Just arriving at Fron Goch and the crew heard something snap, so applied the brakes....



and then realised what went snap, the coupling! so the waggons carried on and derailed on the dodgy quarry trackwork! and the engine crew couldn't be bothered with them, so went back to Dolwyddelan





Waiting at Llewellyn Quarries for the token



and then heads off into the night for the last time....



and now only the de-railed waggons are left to fend for themselves as they're fate is decided! But not all is lost though....

Sad.....

I hope that this isn't some sort of epidemic!

Another one bites the dust R.I.P The Dolwyddelan & Fron Goch Railway

Could this be the start of a new Garden railway? or is every thing being re-gauged for road crossings?

Narrow Minded:58680 wrote:I hope that this isn't some sort of epidemic!

I think it could be

my railways been lifted too, just to add to the losses!

Mine wont be far behind either, thankfully its only winter relaying :p

The reason for closure is due to a recent argument with the quarry the railway serves as the quarry has gone bankrupt and hadn't told the railway, so weren't paying any of the bills for transport etc! so the railway is moving away to a new location! but today, the managers decided that the old mamod waggons were to be taken, and not to be left to rot, and firing up Snowdon was too much hassle, so for the first time since Easter, Britomart was brought out in new her paintwork to go out and rescue the waggons!




A rather sad sight indeed, as it was Britomart's first, and last run on the line in her new paintwork



Leaving Dolwyddelan with a maintenance train





It wasn't long til the train reached the offending waggons



as the crew of Britomart had several hours to kill while the waggons were re-railed, they went back down to Llewellyn quarries and had a brew



But eventually they got the message that the train was ready at Fron Goch for taking back down to Dolwyddelan, so headed back up the line



No Longer



Arriving into Dolwyddelan, with the last train to run on the line in daylight





And finally back in Dolwyddelan, where several locals who had supported the railway were watching with the thought that they'd never see this sight again (and if your wondering, yes that is Britomarts old boiler in the waggon!)



and then, the loco crew decided to have one last run up the line



and so the loco headed off into the sunset for the last time....



to return back very late in the darkness!





Waiting outside Dolwyddelan



and then a little bit of shunting took place, before going back on shed



To have the fire raked out, which ended 5 years of service on the Dolwyddelan & Fron Goch Railway, with the longest standing loco in service to end it. The rails will be taken up over the coming weeks...