Home after a brilliant weekend. The principal attraction lies in being able to 'cop' the more unusual or lesser-used locos and rolling stock.
For instance, on Saturday we managed to ride behind:
- 0-4-0 saddle tank tender locomotive 'Prince' of 1863 (one of the first Ffestiniog engines and one of the oldest working locos in the world);
- 2-6-2 side tank loco 'Russell' of 1906 (sole surviving locomotive of the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway/ Welsh Highland Railway);
- 2-6-2-2-6-2 garratt #138 of 1953 (standard motive power of the rebuilt Welsh Highland Railway);
- 4-6-0 side tank loco #303 of 1916 (visiting locomotive of the 'War Hunslet' design):
- 2-6-2 side tank loco 'Lyd' of 2010 (replica of a Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Manning Wardle);
- 0-4-0 saddle tank 'Hugh Napier' of 1904 (quarry Hunslet);
- 0-4-0 saddle tank 'Britomart' of 1899 (quarry Hunslet);
- 0-4-2 side tank 'Gelert' of 1953;
- 0-4-4 single Fairlie 'Taliesin' of 1999 (replica of a Ffestiniog locomotive of 1876).
Then there's the opportunity to ride in more unusual carriages; travelling a few miles in an original 4-wheeled quarryman's carriage from the 1860s (which I can only describe as desperately uncomfortable).
