Part 2 - Driver's Eye View (Wales) - Welshpool & Llanfair Railway - Llanfair Caereinion to Welshpool

In the second part of our visit to the Welshpool & Llanfair Railway we are faced with the formidable 1 in 29 Golfa Bank on the journey back to Llanfair Caereinion.
The Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway (W&LLR) (Welsh: Rheilffordd y Trallwng a Llanfair Caereinion) is a 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge heritage railway in Powys, Wales. The line is around 8.5 miles long and runs westwards from the town of Welshpool (Welsh: Y Trallwng) via Castle Caereinion to the village of Llanfair Caereinion. Early proposals - The first of these to connect Llanfair Caerinion and Welshpool by railway was the Llanfair Railway of 1864; this would have been a narrow gauge line, with a mixed gauge section where it connected to the Cambrian Railways. This proposal failed as did several subsequent proposals. In late December 1896, the mayor of Welshpool William Addie proposed a 2 ft 6 in gauge railway called the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway. By March 1897, Addie had contracted noted narrow gauge promoter Everard Calthrop to assist in preparing a case for the inquiry. An application for a Light Railway Order was submitted to the Board of Trade in May 1897. At the August 1897 public inquiry Calthrop appeared, along with J.R. Dix manager of the Corris Railway. The enquiry considered both the Llanfair & Meifod Light Railway and the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway proposals. The promoters of the W&LLR approached the Cambrian Railways, asking them to pay for and construct the line. After much time-consuming negotiations, the Cambrian agreed and on 8th September 1899, the Light Railway Order was granted to begin construction of the line. It was opened on 6th April 1903 to aid economic development in the area. Originally operated by the Cambrian Railways, the line was built through difficult country, requiring many contour hugging curves to reach the summit at 600 ft. The original Welshpool terminus was located alongside the main line station requiring trains to share the road through the town, locomotives were fitted with a warning bells for used on this section. In the 1923 Grouping, the Cambrian Railways, including the Welshpool to Llanfair Caereinion line, was absorbed by the Great Western Railway. On 9th February 1931 passenger services ceased, it remained open as a freight-only line, although it was temporarily re-opened to passengers between 6th and 11th August 1945 for the Eisteddfod. The GWR itself was nationalised in 1948 and became part of British Railways. Freight traffic lingered on until 1956, by which time British Railways decided to close the line, with services ceasing on 5 November. Preservation - A group of volunteers and enthusiasts took the line over and started raising money to restore it. On 6 April 1963, the western half of the line, from Llanfair Caereinion to Castle Caereinion, was reopened as a Heritage railway. On 13th December 1964, a pier supporting the steel girder bridge over the River Banwy was seriously damaged by flood waters dislodging the bridge. During the spring and early summer of 1965 the 16th Railway Regiment of the Royal Engineers replaced the damaged masonry pier with a fabricated steel one and restored the span to its original position. Train services between Llanfair Caereinion to Castle Caereinion resumed on 14th August 1965. In 1972, services were extended to Sylfaen. The line through Welshpool, however, could not be reopened, requiring a new terminus station to be built at Raven Square on the western outskirts of the town, it was opened on 18th July 1981. Because of the 2 ft 6 in gauge, unusual for British narrow gauge railways, locomotives and rolling stock to supplement the originals had to be obtained from sources around the world including the Zillertalbahn in Austria. A major grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund permitted restoration of both original locomotives together with several coaches and original wagons and provision of new workshop facilities, ready for the line's centenary. Golfa Bank - is particularly steep with a mile long 1 in 29 gradient, the steepest passenger carrying section on the Cambrian Railways, it is still a challenging climb today. Golfa bank rises from about 350 ft above sea level at the start of the climb to 630 ft above sea level at the summit, equal to climbing 280 ft in 1.5 miles. Due to the severity of the climb, locomotives had to be specialy designed and built to cope with the gradient. There was a halt at the top called Golfa Halt, 1.75 miles from the Welshpool Raven Square, opened on 6th April 1903 it closed again on the 9th February 1931 when passenger services were withdrawn, the line closed to all traffic on 3rd November 1956. In preservation the halt reopened on 18th July 1981 only to be closed again in 2015.
For more information about the railway, please click on this link - en.wikipedia.o...
To make enquiries or to book your own adventure, please click on this link - wllr.org.uk/

[@sellier-bellot22]

Bit by bit this jungle of Wales becomes familiar to me ! LOL😄😄

[@AndriesWoldendorp-q2b]

I really enjoyed this video. Beautiful landscape and the sound of the locomotive is geving this video it's character.

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Thank you, I'm pleased you enjoyed the sights and sounds of this wonderful Welsh railway.

[@nicholasroberts6954]

Even "Sans soleil", very picturesque countryside and a nice relaxing video. The stations, a picture of Victorian order and human-scale construction . . . . unlike most of the modern constructions on the main-lines which could be taken for chicken-processing factories or in the case of the "Parkway" stations the de-training stops for San Quentin . . . "Oh wayward bombs, fall-on . . . etc etc" (Thank you Sir John B)

[@Timsvideochannel1]

When the sun does come out Wales is awesome. The railway perfectly recreates the days when the journey itself was more important than the speed of the train.

[@kellyashfordtrains2642]

Very nice. When I had a ride on the railway in 1997, the sun was shining.

[@Timsvideochannel1]

I love riding the railway on a sunny late autumn day after most of the leaves have fallen and those that remain are the colours of autumn.

[@emanuelsantarem4185]

Congratulations for this work. AMAZING. Greetings from Brazil.

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Thank you very much!

[@mariacristinacardosomapell9134]

Parabéns Tim, por mais está bela viagem. Saudações aqui do Brasil.

[@Digitalchirppy]

Loved the video, Thank you for sharing

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Thank you, I'm pleased you enjoyed it.

[@johannperaus6890]

Hi Tim! At min. 3:25, Oti enjoys the guard eye view, nice 👍. Best regards from Hans and Cheers 🍻🇦🇹.

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Hello Hans, my daughter has just taken in a puppy to keep Oti company, you can see it on her KZbin channel - kzbin.info. Time for a 🍺. Cheers. Tim

[@makhanpradhan8190]

It will be good if I can see the train. Nice video .

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Hi, I'm pleased you enjoyed the ride. The train can be seen at the beginning and end of the video.

[@MrAsdafic]

This is amazing!

[@Timsvideochannel1]

I'm pleased you enjoyed it, although the real credit goes to staff and volunteers who make days out like this possible 🙂.

[@MrAsdafic]

@@Timsvideochannel1 да! Эти люди заслуживают уважения!

[@Timsvideochannel1]

@@MrAsdafic Мы в долгу перед людьми, которые спасли эту железную дорогу.

[@Fan652w]

Thank you Tim for another very interesting video. Like in one of your fairly recent videos taken on the Welsh Highland, the train came to a stop 'in the the middle of nowhere'for no obvious reason. Was it to build up steam pressure for the next steep gradient? I was amazed at the inscriptions on some of the carriages on the train going the other way. I of course knew about the Zillertalbahn. But SKGLB? Is that the Salzkammergut Lokalbahn, another Austian 76cm guage line which closed as long ago as 1957? Wow! (I recently traveled on the replacing bus service, Salzburg-Bad Ischl. That runs every 30 minutes 7-days-a-week!)

[@Timsvideochannel1]

The train stopped on a couple of occasions to allow the fireman to stop cars at the road crossing to allow the train to proceed, also some of the wayside halts were barely recognisable as places where the train might stop on request. In the video description, there is an explanation for the continental rolling stock, 2 ft 6 ins is an unusual gauge in the UK whereas 2 ft 6 in (762/760 mm) was relativity common in Europe. As carriages and locomotives were no longer required on lines in Austria and Hungary some were purchased for use on the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway where it was decided to keep them just as they looked on their original railways. A bus is OK, but it's not the same as travelling behind a living breathing steam locomotive.

[@Fan652w]

@@Timsvideochannel1 Thanks Tim for this reply!. But I would make two points about the SKGLB. It is obvious in the 21st century that this line is one of the clearest cases worldwide of a line which should never have closed. It ran through a beautiful Alpine landscape and served several small towns and large villages. Its two terminals at Salzburg and Bad Ischl are major tourist centres. Had the line been in a wealtthy country, it would have been modernised and electrified. In 1957 Austria was still desperately poor. I.mentioned the frequent bus service (see ERT 963) simply to make the point that there is clearly nowadays enough traffic to justify a railway line.

[@Timsvideochannel1]

​@@Fan652w I read your reply with interest, we have a number of railway lines in the UK that should never have closed, one glaring example is the Keswick and Penrith line in the Lake District national park. This article outlines the current attempt to reopen it - www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/long-running-campaign-to-reinstate-abandoned-railway-line-in-lake-district-gathers-pace-01-08-2023/ As a youngster on holiday, I used to see the train leave Penrith for Keswick, I regret never travelling the line when I had the opportunity.

[@neilforbes416]

Nice one, Tim!

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@neilforbes416]

@@Timsvideochannel1 Cheers!

[@martinmackenny]

3:18 - 3:28 "Guard Dog" at "Guard Post"😃🤩😉

[@719599]

Desde Catemaco Veracruz México ¡Felicidades por conservar ese hermoso ferrocarril!

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Hola, es un gusto saber de México, me alegra que hayas disfrutado de este maravilloso ferrocarril patrimonial.

[@neilforbes416]

39:26 "Zillertalbahn" Ex-German, Swiss or perhaps Austrian carriages. Perhaps picked up cheap as they were going spare from the "Zillertalbahn".

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Hello Neil, you are spot on, the carriages were purchased from the "Zillertalbahn" in Austria when they were replaced by modern rolling stock.

[@briancooper562]

Some of the rolling stock has come a long way, Austria. A number of passenger coaches and a transfer wagon for standard gauge wagons from the Zillerbahn.

[@Timsvideochannel1]

It's nice to see rolling stock and locomotives from Continental Europe, especially the Zillerbahn running through the pretty Welsh countryside.

[@davidpemberton3112]

Was the GoPro the main camera?

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Yes, I was using a GoPro 11 Black Edition.

[@davidpemberton3112]

I have to ask but what camera was it shot on?

[@Timsvideochannel1]

This was filmed with a GoPro 11 Black Edition camera and a Sony FDR-AX53. The lighting was appalling and it was pouring with rain.

[@robertcoleman4861]

A wonderful journey thanks Tim, 11AM daylight save Sydney's northern beaches it's already 36c Sydney's west expecting 44c it's going to be a real stinker cheers Bob.🥵🌡☀🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Hello Robert, I'm typing my reply on a very wet day here in the UK, rather like the weather I experienced on my summer visit to Wales when this video was shot. I experienced 41c on my recent outback tour, there was a constant warm wind, it was like standing in the blast from a massive hair dryer, a day later I woke up in Wellington (New Zealand) where I had to scrape the ice off the windscreen of my hire car before I could drive it. I hope you enjoy the good weather. 🍺🍺🍺. Tim.

[@librarian16]

That red flag badly needed washing. 😊

[@neilforbes416]

56:25 G-g-g-g-ghosts! Yikes! Llanfair Caereinion Station is hau-hau-haunted! LOL

[@Timsvideochannel1]

😊.

[@neilforbes416]

@@Timsvideochannel1 LOL

[@Mediawatcher2023]

@@neilforbes416 👻

[@davidpanton3192]

I notice the guard has a lo-vis jacket,

[@Timsvideochannel1]

It's nice to see the railway staff in the uniforms similar to those worn back in the days before the railway was a heritage line.

[@KOLEJ22DrogaPrzygody]

Hello super

[@Timsvideochannel1]

I'm pleased you enjoyed the ride 😊.

[@oliveiraneto1992]

Quero parabenizar o Maquinista , ele sabes o que uma marcha da locomotiva Isso é apaixonante para surprir as saudades das vias ferreas Oliveira Neto

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Olá, concordo que o maquinista da locomotiva fez um ótimo trabalho mantendo o trem em movimento na subida de 1 em 29 até o cume da ferrovia e graças aos voluntários que salvaram e mantiveram esta ferrovia funcionando, podemos ver e desfrutar de imagens e sons de locomotivas a vapor trabalhando duro.

[@ingazagrjadina79]

Vsemkrutoipaezdkinaretroperavoze😉🫢🫢🤗🚂💈.

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Radvam se, che ti kharesa 😊.

[@babsbat]

WAYTRAINS AE MEANT TO GO NOT FLYING AROUND LIKE CARS

[@Timsvideochannel1]

Why rush through beautiful countryside? travelling by train is far more relaxing than screaming round corners in a speeding car.