August 2017 Update
August was another good month on the railway, with passenger numbers up again on the same period last year. But the highlight was the four-day Bank Holiday Steam Gala, passenger numbers for which were up by no less than 19% over last year’s Gala. What made this Gala so special was, in part, down to the amazing co-operation we received from within The Great Little Trains of Wales, as well as some pure genius on the part of our Chief Engineer, Rob Houghton, when confronted with a major crisis.
The Gala was to feature our five resident Hunslet locomotives, Alice, Winifred, Maid Marian, Holy War and the recently returned to service George B. As regular readers will recall from last month, the last-named suffered a crank problem, which could have been much worse but for the quick thinking and mechanical sympathy of the loco crew. She, and the train, were towed back to base where the offending wheelset was removed and dispatched to the Festiniog Railway’s Boston Lodge works for repair. Boston Lodge did a typically superb job in double quick time, and George B was back in steam on the Wednesday before the Gala. However, on her first scheduled trip that day, one of the eccentrics, the rods located within the frames and which operate the valves, decided to bend itself because of a partial seizure, and this in turn cracked the eccentric’s main big-end or journal. The train was duly rescued and the offending pieces dismantled. A fire was quickly lit in Alice and services were resumed in the afternoon.
What followed was nothing short of a miracle of ingenuity, and the process would normally be expected to take days, if not weeks, to sort out. Rob Houghton immediately took off the aforementioned items and then repaired them by welding the cast iron pieces back together again, using special welding rods. Cast iron is in no way an easy metal to weld, but one aspect is that it cannot be quenched in water to cool down, so Rob had the stroke of genius to build up the fire slightly in one of the other locos on shed and then put the repaired eccentric, including the crack, in the firebox to cool down/anneal very slowly overnight, in exactly the same process as glass blowers. The result was totally successful and George B was able to return to light service in time to take part in the advertised triple-header on the Saturday evening, much to the surprise of those waiting aboard. She performed without fault over the entire weekend, albeit double-heading with other locos, and was used in the septuple-header on the Saturday evening, more of which later. Rob was his usual self-effacing self, but all who knew what he had achieved so quickly were frankly astonished and full of admiration.
By way of digression, it worth mentioning that however good cast iron may be for some applications, like engine blocks etc. where strength to density ratios are high, this metal can have distinct disadvantages, and reading Dan Cruikshank’s explanation of the collapse of the cast iron railway bridge over the River Dee near Chester in May, 1847 will put the matter succinctly into perspective. His book is entitled; Bridges: Heroic Designs that Changed the World.
Getting back to the Gala, the problem with George B meant the BLR was one Hunslet down for the weekend, but this is where the positive co-operation between all the narrow-gauge railways in Wales is so beneficial. The team of Howard Bowling, James Milner and General Manager, David Jones rapidly liaised with the Ffestiniog Railway, only to find General Manager, Paul Lewin, on holiday. However, his PA, Pauline Holloway, leaped into action, tracked Paul down and secured the loan of the National Trust owned Quarry Hunslet, Hugh Napier. The FR team dropped everything and got her ready in next to no time for transporting to Llanuwchllyn. We not only offer huge thanks to the FR, particularly Pauline, Phil Brown and Paul Lewin for the way they all immediately pulled together for our benefit, but also to BLR volunteer, James Milner, for similarly dropping everything, getting his special truck, complete with fitted 2 ft. track, to Dinas near Caernarfon and loading Hugh Napier, thus by the afternoon of that same day, Hugh Napier was delivered to the BLR so that the compliment of five Hunslets in steam over the weekend could be maintained. By way of returning the compliment, the BLR will be loaning most of our Hunslet locomotives to the Ffestiniog for their ‘Hunslet 125’ Gala next year.
As always during a BLR Gala, a courtesy vintage bus service was on hand to take passengers from the Leisure Centre in Bala to the line’s station across the river and back again, and this service is always organised by Andrew Hayward. Together with colleagues Nigel and Paul, they were kept busy in their beautifully restored Leyland single-decker, although it was noticed that the lack of power steering was occasionally felt. Apart from the smart vintage bus, the team also brought to Llanuwchllyn a beautifully restored Morris type CV truck, next to which an elderly Morris Minor promptly appeared. It was also nice to see the famous Ivo Peters Bentley back in circulation after its lengthy engine rebuild. Other visitors to the station were a pair of 1960s Triumph sports cars, possibly part of a much larger club outing, judging by the number spotted in the area over the weekend.
Each BLR Gala features something original and unscheduled, and this year, there were two such events. The first was on the Saturday evening and featured seven locos coupled together. This spectacular line-up featured all the resident BLR Hunslets (five) plus visiting Hugh Napier, and added to the cavalcade was Triassic, the non-steaming 0-6-0 Peckett which lives at Llanuwchllyn. All seven moved slowly away from the station down to the bottom of the Dolfawr bank, then were uncoupled and returned to the station, including Triassic being towed by Holy War. The sight of all this history together was quite something, and probably unique.
In years gone by, there has been a bar-b-q next to the station, but this time, General Manager, David Jones, had an inspired idea and proposed a ‘Baked Potato Special’ at the end of Sunday’s operations, as a thank-you to the numerous volunteers who had come from far and wide to help over the weekend, but also to any members of the public who were asked to make a donation to the railway.
To this end, a couple of dozen baked potatoes were carefully wrapped in a double layer of foil and then placed in the smokeboxes of the last scheduled, double-headed train. On the train’s return, the spuds were removed from the smokeboxes, foil removed and devoured with butter, cheese and other items from the station café. For those who have not tasted a smokebox spud, there is no soot whatsoever, and the texture of the potato is superb and like no other. Repeated trials have shown that a return trip down the line, approximately nine miles, cooks the potatoes to perfection. To be seated around a picnic table on the platform eating loco-cooked potatoes in the twilight, with a simmering Hunslet close by - well, it does not get much better. Judging by comments from the uninitiated, this will become a feature of future events.
And finally…… we offer enormous thanks to the considerable number of volunteers who came to help over the weekend, some from long distance, including Jim Adams (again) plus Martin and Cathy Houghton (no relation to Rob) who run the Society Membership Register and who came over from Suffolk for the weekend. The furthest distance award goes to regular volunteers, Andy and Gill Best, who came down from Orkney. Howard Bowling again deserves mention as, apart from his efforts with securing Hugh Napier, he was heavily involved with arranging the timetable and rostering for the whole weekend. On top of that, he arrived a day early to get all the rolling stock ready and correctly positioned. Likewise, we offer again our sincere thanks for the wonderful help from all at the Ffestiniog Railway, Paul Lewin, Pauline Holloway, Phil Brown and the Boston Lodge team. Without everyone’s ‘positive waves’, our Gala might not have achieved quite so much.
We close with a more recent photo, captured by Martin Houghton, of the railway’s newly painted Not-So-Rapid Response Vehicle, which shows its capability to move innumerable people. All it needs now is a floorboard or two.
