Friday, August 19th, 2011: Ffestiniog Steam Railway
Bob: Having had so much fun on the Porthmadog to Caernarfon steam train, we decided to try the Ffestiniog Railway, another antique, narrow-gauge steam railway line, but one with a different route. We thought that using the railroad we'd be able to see a different section of the surrounding countryside in a very pleasant way. Monika also had the great idea of buying our lunch sandwiches at Tesco and then leaving our car in their parking lot for the day while we took the train into the hinterlands. Since that saved us at least 7 pounds compared to parking in the city "Park and Pay" lot, I was all in favor of it. Correspondingly, we lit out just after breakfast and arrived at the Tesco in Porthmadog about 9:45. We ran inside to purchase some sandwiches for lunch and then walked down to the train station. As it turned out, we were early enough to see the steam and smoke from the 9:30 train to Caernarfon billowing out over the town as it left on the morning run. We turned off the main street, however, when we saw an outdoor market opening on a small side street. I found an English to U.S. electrical plug adaptor that I had been looking for, and it was even made in England to boot so I didn't have to worry about the vagaries of Chinese quality (?) control. We wandered around the market for a few minutes, but then it was time to get to the Porthmadog Station and buy tickets for the train to Blaenau Ffestiniog, which was the end of the line up in the mountains. Fortunately they still had tickets available and we hopped on board one of the third-class carriages. Since we had a few minutes before the train left, however, I hopped off again and ran to the front of the train to take pictures of the steam engine. This engine, a double-Fairlie, was really interesting in that it had a central boiler and control cabin but then two fireboxes and smokestacks on either side of that, complete with steam pistons and a driving truck. So it was kind of a double-ended steam locomotive, which was a very unusual design, but the unique arrangement had given the locomotives just enough extra horsepower and traction to enable them to haul cars up the steep gradient to Blaenau Ffestiniog. |
Monika: Another day, another railroad. Today we decided to take the other railroad from Porthmadog, the Rheilffordd Ffestiniog Railway that went up the mountain to Blaenau Ffestiniog. The first train did not leave until 10:15, so we had plenty of time and decided to avoid the dreaded car parks by parking in the Tesco parking lot and walking to the station. We justified it by buying two sandwiches for our midday meal. I also had snagged two apples at the breakfast buffet and we had cookies from our room, so lunch was definitely accounted for. While walking down the street towards the train station, we found an outdoor market. Bob, of course, stopped at the hardware tent to check what he might possibly need. I walked on and found some utensils and such. I was intrigued by the large numbers of spoonrests and teabag tidies (American: very tiny saucer on which to place a used tea bag), but decided not to buy anything that morning. Bob, however, had found some wooden dowels that looked like they may come in handy to put chairs back together, and an outlet plug that converted British wall outlets to everyone elses versions, including the German "stecker" as well as the normal American 110-volt plug. |
Bob: The original purpose of the line was to haul empty slate cars back up to the slate mine at the end of the line, but that was augmented already starting in the 1920s by tourists coming up to enjoy the scenic ride. Although the line went defunct in 1946, it was restarted already by 1951 by the steam train conservationists and gradually extended back to its old length. The exact course of the tracks had, however, been slightly altered at the upper end by a new hydroelectric plant that had a supply lake which flooded the old railroad right-of-way. Except for that slight alteration the tracks were running on the course of the old roadbed along the sides of the hills and that gave us magnificent views out over the scenery below. For the first few miles we could see the tidal flats and then the river valleys, but always up above we saw the looming peaks of the Snowdonia National Park mountain ranges. Again we were blessed to have a non-rain day with overcast but fairly light clouds. We read about walking trails being available at the Tan-Y-Bwlch station, so we decided to disembark and walk a bit between trains. Purchasing a round-trip ticket on the Ffestiniog Railway entitles one to take as many trains as you want on a given day, so you can hop off, walk a bit, and hop back on with no problem at all. We planned to make use of that entitlement by disembarking at Tan-Y-Bwlch and then walking to either the station just above it or just below it on the line, where we would re-embark and continue our journey to the top. |
Monika: With that done, we kept walking to the train station and bought our tickets. We looked at the information and learned that the station in the middle had plenty of walking paths, whereas the station on top did not seem to have much to offer. Its claim to fame was an old slate quarry, the reason for the railroad in the first place, since this was the way slate was transported to Porthmadog. But if we wanted to walk, we could get out at Tan-Y-Bwlch and we were told that we could board the next train after our walk. |
Bob: After disembarking at Tan-Y-Bwlch our first step was to purchase the pamphlet for the local hiking trails at the cafe for 20 pence. Studying that, we concluded that the only feasible direction was to loop around downhill past Llyn Mair lake and come back up to the tracks at the Plas Halt station. The only catch was that we had to be at Plas Halt before the train came as it was a whistle-stop station and we had to flag down the train so that it would stop and pick us up. The train schedule gave us about a little over an hour to get from Tan-Y-Bwlch over to Plas Halt, but we figured that since it was only about 3 miles tops and mostly downhill at that, we should be capable of getting there on time. We were both a bit worn from our 3-hour walk up and down the coastal cliffs the previous day and just didn't have sufficient energy to charge along in our usual fashion. Still it seemed to be eminently do-able, so we set off from Tan-Y-Bwlch station downhill to the lake. But right away we saw a branch trail that promised us carved wood sculptures, so of course we had to take that route even if it was a bit longer and slower. It turned out to be a kind of nature trail and I was surprised to learn that this section of Wales had so much precipitation that it was essentially a temperate rain forest. That was confirmed by seeing thick carpets of moss growing on almost everything included not only the tree trunks but also any exposed stone surface. It reminded me of the Olympic National Park in the northwest United States because that is the only other place I have encountered a temperate zone rain forest. We did indeed see a couple of carved wood tree trunks on the way down and they were cute but nothing to write home about. |
Monika: When we stopped at Tan-Y-Bwlch, we bought a map for 20 pence that showed all the walking paths in the area. They centered around a man-made lake, and we figured that we could walk around the lake and end up at Plas Halt, the whistle stop just before Tan-Y-Bwlch. The path down to the lake was through a temperate rain forest and it was truly astounding how lush everything was. Moss was growing everywhere and the little creek we were walking along was full of water. |
Bob: Once down at the lake we had a choice of walking along the road or following a lakeside walking path, so that was a no-brainer. We followed the shoreline path counter-clockwise around Llyn Mair and were rewarded with several nice views out over the lake. When we had almost reached the other end of the lake we turned southward and started to ascend back up to the railroad line. That took us up a series of switchbacks, which slowed us up a bit, but we arrived at Plas Halt in plenty of time to flag down the next train. I used the old hitchhiking thumb in the air sign to catch their attention and that seemed to work fine. I was glad of that because my backup plan was to do jumping jacks on the platform, and that would have taken a lot more energy! |
Monika: The lake also was very high. The sun was not shining but here and there some blue peeked through the clouds and reflected in the water. After a pleasant 40 minute walk we reached Plas Halt in plenty of time for the next train. Bob did his best hitchhiker imitation and the train stopped to let us back on board. We particularly enjoyed the next sections of the train's route. At one point the train did a complete 360 degree turn to slowly climb up the slope. This gave, of course, a nice opportunity to take a picture of the engine. |
Bob: Re-embarking, we continued up the valley past Dduallt, another whistle-stop station, but one marked by an unusual 360-degree circle in the train's route. The circle was to gradually gain altitude, of course, but since this was a narrow-gauge railroad the circle was quite small and we could clearly see the engine pulling our train around the bend. From Dduallt we chugged our way uphill along a valley and past the new hydroelectric plant to Blaenau Ffestiniog, the end of the line. There we had a choice of walking 30 minutes over to an old slate mine, touring that, and then returning to the station to take the next train back, or simply waiting in the train and having a leisurely lunch while waiting for them to switch the locomotive to the other end of the train. While we were both curious what a slate cavern would look like, we weren't THAT curious and we decided to stay on the train and eat the sandwiches we had purchased at Tesco for lunch. |
Monika: A little before the final station, we passed a large lake with a hydroelectric plant, not very photogenic but very efficient. From there on it was only a short haul to Blaenau Ffestiniog. I was surprised how large the town was. The train seemed to drive past the back yards of houses for quite a long time. Bob and I had decided not to go to the slate quarry, but just take the train back down about 40 minutes later. We sat down in one of the buffet cars, where they had nice tables between the seats and consumed our lunch. After that I hankered for a cup of coffee, so I started to walk into town and found a little coffee shop. I found the price of 2 pounds for a small cup rather dear, but the coffee was pretty good, and it did perk me up. I seemed to be a little tired today from yesterday. |
Bob: On the way back down the mountain the locomotive didn't have to do a lot of work, and my impression was that they had to ride the brakes a good deal of the way. In the old days, in fact, the trains loaded with slate slabs from the mine just used gravity to propel them down the mountain into Porthmadog, and that must have been quite a ride! Those gravity-trains are occasionally re-enacted on the Ffestiniog Railway, but it is only on special dates and participation is by invitation only, so my dreams to do the world's longest roller-coaster ride were doomed to disappointment. |
Monika: The trip down took us back through some of the rather wide sweeping curves and above the beautiful green valleys. The scenery was not as visually impressive as what we had seen going across the Snowdon pass. The peaks were more gentle and the valleys wider. There were also a lot more trees along the line and it was difficult to get unencumbered shots of the scenery, but Bob did his usual magnificent job. |
Bob: Still, the sun was peeking out now and then, so our ride back down the mountain afforded us some very scenic views of the lush, green countryside. Once back in Porthmadog we disembarked and walked back down the main street toward the Tesco parking lot. We stopped in again at the market where I bought some wooden dowels for fixing chairs and the like, something I have not been able to find back at home. We also took our time to look at the plethora of little shops that lined both sides of the main street there. Our specific goal was to find a nice ceramic toast rack like the one we had admired at Holmeshead B&B back in the Lake District, but that we did not find. However, we did find several nice things at quite reasonable prices: some tea bag "tidies" with colorful birds on them and a nice ceramic spoon rest for the kitchen. I also found a pair of LED flashlights on caribiners for 1.5 pounds and some black show dye also for 1.5 pounds. By that point in our trip, my black sneakers were somewhat the worse for wear after being continuously used for country walks for a couple of weeks, and I thought if they were to pass muster for "formal night" on the Crown Princess I would have to both wash them off and spiff them up by re-dying them. My one-pair-of-shoes solution to the packing problem was working well overall, but I had not counted on how badly walking in the mud and muck of the trails of the Lake District would deteriorate them. Once back at Tesco, we bought some more sandwiches for our evening snack and then drove back to Criccieth and our hotel for the evening. The wind was howling and it was spitting rain off and on, so we were just as glad to put our feet up and enjoy our warm, cozy room while we had our evening snack and took turns using the computer for storing pictures and updating the journal. |
Monika: Back in Porthmadog, the market was still going, so Bob bought some more dowels of different diameter and he encouraged me to buy a spoonrest with pretty flowers and some of those teabag tidies for when Lois comes to visit. At Tesco we bought some more sandwiches for the evening meal and then hurried home to rest and snack. But later in the evening, I really felt like looking to see what the sea would look like in the wind that we kept hearing howling in the eaves. So I convinced Bob to take a small walk down to the sea. There were indeed white caps and the waves were crashing onto the beach. No one was swimming this time. My curiosity satisfied, we headed back to the hotel and wrote in our journal and read. |
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