Jon Radder said:
Great video Terry. I love the camera train pacing the steam train.
From the brass stack just in front of the cab - is that steam exhaust or is that pressure relief steam?
Jon - that is the old-style ‘Great Western’ pattern safety valve cover - typical of ALL the locos with an affinity to the Great Western Railway company [GWR], not just the standard gauge stuff. The old line ran directly into Welshpool town, where it met up with the Cambrian, later Great Western Railway terminus in order to transfer produce. Our locos are modelled in the era of this Great Western ownership, as you can see not only by the Brunswick green livery, but by the design of the loco fittings. The chocolate and cream colour scheme of the passenger cars is the same as the standard gauge stuff. There were only ever three passenger cars, BTW, two 1st and 3rd class combines and a an all-3rd in the middle - there is no turntable on the line, nor ever was, and locos ride heading east out of town to the terminus at Llanfair Caereinion, about 8.5 miles due west, and run around the train there, before heading back cab-first. If you google earth it, you’ll get some great shots of the line from overhead, and also street-view of the surrounding countryside, which is stunningly beautiful. Look for Welspool and Llanfair Caereinion - and yes, ther ARE two LL at the beginning of Llanfair Caereinion - it IS Welsh after all.
The line itself has the steepest adhesion sstretch in the UK - 1:24 going up Golfa Bank out of Raven Square station, Welshpool. And since it is the only line in the UK which is also 2ft 6in gauge - a gauge shared with many old European lines, it means that they get a lot of stuff that nobody wants from over there.
In additions to the built-for-the-line stuff, they have a loco from Sierra Leone [14/85] and two passenger cars, a load of passenger cars from the Zillertal in Austria, and two larger cars from a NG track in Hungary. One loco under heavy restoration is the Franco-Belge 0-8-0 ‘Sir Drefaldwyn’ [not named after a knight of the round table, but Merionethshire in Welsh [now called Powys again]]. A recent arrival is the Rezina 0-8-0, and very useful and powerful she is too.
The two original locos, ‘Countess’ and ‘The Earl’ are named after the earl and countess of Powys, the old Welsh name for the county. The present earl and his missus are outstandingly supportive patrons of the line, whose President is Prince charles, the Prince of Wales [good, eh?]
In addition, there is a ton of the line on YouTube- just type in Welshpool steam gala W&L Countess Earl Rezina and see what comes up - last count there were over 500 related clips, some of them mine.
Martin will be putting a proper movie together, he has all the correct high-falutin’ gizmos to do it, and makes a great job, too.
Thanks for watching!
Best
tac
www.ovgrs.org
