Rheidol Review Issue 50 (Issue 2, 2024) - The Vale of Rheidol Newsletter
The bright, airy atrium which greets visitors to the new museum at Aberystwyth: vertical boiler loco ‘Redstone’ is on the right, with (cover star!) 7.25” gauge Lawley “Zulu” on the left. Photos:Phil Budd
Frontispiece: inside the new museum...
“Palmerston” enjoys the Spring sunshine during its first morning in the museum, taken during the shunt to position new exhibits inside the building.
It’s been a busy year so far...
Welcome to the second issue of the year. Our season is now well underway, and the Rheidol valley is echoing to the daily sound of whistles again. It is good to be back!
It has been an exciting first quarter for the railway: one of the main highlights was the arrival of the Dukedog back in Aberystwyth for the first time back in 60 years. The reaction to this was hugely positive, both online and in the local and national press.
It was also a busy month for lorry movements in Aberystwyth, with plenty of deliveries for our new museum. Things are moving at an exciting pace: do come and see it for yourself this season.
With so much news to report this magazine has taken on something of a different flavour: enjoy the narrative of the first four months of the year, told in chronological order from front to back of this issue. We’ve also squeezed in a brief engineering report, as well as a report from the volunteers too.
Normal service will be resumed next issue, with features and articles held over.
Page 4 ‘Fire Queen’ arrives
Page 7 No.590 + the Dukedog
Page 12 Palmerston arrives
Page 14 F68 + Barclay No.721
Page 17 Sabero No.1 / DIck Kerr
2024 will be an exceptionally busy year for the railway, with plenty of special events going on: you can read about these in this issue. It is exciting to see the new museum building ‘finding its groove’ as a space for the local community. Perhaps you will come and join us?
I will be out and about around the railway over the coming season, either in the shop, guarding or acting as Duty Officer. If you see me, please do say ‘hello’: I am always pleased to hear any suggestions. You can also contact me via phil@rheidolrailway.co.uk.
Looking forward to seeing you in the Rheidol Valley in the coming year!
Diolch,
Phil.
Phil Budd, Editor
Photo: Rob Phillips
Page 20 Photo news
Page 28 Workshop news
Page 30 Volunteer news
Page 34 News from the South...
3
Arrivals by road
It is always a spectacle to watch locomotives arriving by road, and being unloaded from a lorry.
Typically, this happens around three or four times a year in Aberystwyth, usually as contract jobs arrive or leave the workshops. During the first quarter of 2024 though, there has been a delivery almost every week at times!
The new arrivals have been in connection with our new ‘Wales to the World’ building, which opened in late March 2024. The musuem contains items from our own collection, as well as other locomotives from around the UK and further afield.
As this is a journal of record, it is worth recording the dates that each vehicle arrived...
“Fire Queen” was the first loco to arrive (in late January), with lots of preparatory work put into getting the locomotive to Aberystwyth.
As part of this, the National Trust was (perhaps understandably) a little nervous about publicising the road move. This concern was on two parts: firstly that this would be the first time that ‘Fire Queen’ had left Gwynedd since 1848, and also that the collection was being broken up: this was to be the first of a complex series of unpublicised road moves across the country, in connection with items from the collection moving to new homes.
The ‘Fire Queen’ story was also ‘multiagency’ (with representatives from ourselves, the National Trust, Gwynedd Council, the Bala Lake Railway all involved, not to mention many others involved with
Photo: Andrew Simmonds
ndrew Simmonds
other exhibits being moved after ‘Fire Queen’), so the National Trust were keen that the story was released to the media in a controlled and organised way.
We therefore wrote an embargoed press release, which was agreed by all parties and circulated to a small group of national and railway press at an agreed time. This was scheuled for release on the Friday afternoon, after the loco and coach had actually arrived on site in Aberystwyth.
All went smoothly with the road move, with the tender, loco and coach arriving on consecutive days. First to arrive was the Padarn Railway Directors coach, which arrived by road on 16th January: this became the first vehicle into the new museum (as pictured in our last magazine). This was quickly followed by the tender of ‘Fire Queen’ on 17th January, and the locomotive itself on 18th January (opposite).
Soon, the locomotive and tender were safely inside a (very empty) museum. The coach in particular required a sympathetic and careful clean, having travelled on roads that had recently been gritted with road-salt. ‘Fire Queen’ also enjoyed the attention of our apprentices, in having its considerable brasswork polished.
Time for some photos, and then to hit ‘send’ on the embargoed press release…
The news then broke, and it caught quite a few people by surprise! The reaction was overwhelmingly positive, with news of its arrival travelling quickly across both the railway and national media (and even abroad). The story made the front cover of most of the monthly railway periodicals (always a good thing), as well as on BBC, ITV and S4C news: a real coup, and a good start for the museum before it had even opened.
Simmonds Simmonds
Vale of Rheidol Railway News
The locomotive and coach are now on display, quickly becoming the centrepiece of the new museum. Discrete black barriers have been erected at knee height around the locomotive, in view of its historical importance: this also removes the inevitable temptation for people to climb on it.
This is of course a temporary visit, as ‘Fire Queen’ will eventually return to Parc Padarn to be displayed in its original shed.This building is set to be restored by Cyngor Gwynedd, using Levelling Up funding granted by the UK government. Whilst this restoration work is being carried out, ‘Fire Queen’ will be temporarily allocated for display at the Vale of Rheidol Railway in Aberystwyth.
In addition, the Director’s Coach has been allocated to move from Penrhyn Castle to the Bala Lake Railway. It is being temporarily displayed at the Vale of Rheidol Railway alongside ‘Fire Queen’ during the current season, before moving on to Bala.
Councillor Nia Jeffreys, Deputy Leader of Cyngor Gwynedd and Cabinet member for the Economy and Community Department, said:“Our industrial history and heritage continues to fascinate and inspire people of all ages, and we very much look forward to welcoming the Fire Queen home to Gwynedd – and more specifically to Parc Padarn – soon. In the meantime, we are pleased to work with the Vale of Rheidol Railway to ensure the locomotive and tender has a fitting residency while restoration work is carried out on its original shed in Llanberis”.
Llyr ap Iolo, Managing Director of the Vale of Rheidol Railway, said: “We are grateful to Julian Birley for offering us the Director’s Coach for short term display until the Bala Lake Railway can exhibit it themselves, and also for recommending us to Cyngor Gwynedd as a possible temporary home for ‘Fire Queen’.
“It is good that the public can continue to enjoy it, rather than it going into temporary storage behind closed doors.We are excited to have such a historic exhibit to display in our museum, to showcase alongside other rare and unseen rolling stock from our collection. We are really happy to have ‘Fire Queen’ on public display, until it returns home to where it belongs at Gilfach Ddu”.
If you haven’t made it to Aberystwyth yet this season, do come down: don’t miss your chance to see ‘Fire Queen’ and the Director’s Coach together! It is hard to imagine circumstances where the two will be paired together in the future, so make the most of the opportunity.
The ‘buzz’ from the arrival of the loco was tangible: ‘Fire Queen’ was here!
How do you top that though? Time for another arrival…
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After a lull of just under a month, the next batch of lorries began arriving thick and fast….
The next arrival was Baldwin No. 590 (above), which arrived by road on Monday 26th February: the locomotive is here for contact work. Without space for it in the workshop, the Baldwin was temporarily shunted into the carriage shed for storage.
Next to arrive was ‘the big one’ – in every sense of the word! Following an initial suggestion from one of our footplate crew back in 2023, Llyr ap Iolo had arranged for the loan of ‘Dukedog’ No.9017 from the Bluebell Railway. This is of course of huge significance: Dukedogs were synonymous with Aberystwyth during steam days, and one has not been back to the town since the last one left in 1961.
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Announcing the news meant (again) a joint press release, embargoed until the day before the road move. There was a concern that might be a negative reaction from Bluebell supporters, given recent adverse publicity regarding other locomotives leaving their railway. However, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive: easily eclipsing ‘Fire Queen’ in terms of coverage! BBC, ITV, Nation.Cymru and S4C all covered the stories, whilst the Vale of Rheidol Railway (again) made the front covers of many railway magazines for the second month in a row.
On the morning after the news broke, the hauliers (Allelys) set off from their base early on the morning of 26th February to reach Sheffield Park by mid morning. The loco and tender were loaded by lunchtime, and were on their way by mid-afternoon.
Courtesy of James Cummins (press and media at the Bluebell Railway), we were able to receive photos of it leaving their carpark within minutes of it actually happening. The ‘Dukedog’ was on its way…
The ensemble stopped overnight at Membury Services on the M4, before continuing their journey across the Severn Bridge and into Wales, The cavalcade finally arrived into Aberystwyth at tea-time on 27th February, making an impressive sight in the rush hour traffic.The loco and tender spent the night in our carpark, before being unloaded on the following morning.
On the morning after its arrival, No.9017 was due to be filmed being unloaded by ITV Wales. Then, a curve ball from the TV production company: “Is there any chance of a Cambrian Coast Express headboard?”
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We were able to source one (on the wall of the shop at the Talyllyn Railway!), as well as a second on the wall of Borth station museum. We also had an offer of a 1980s ‘Cambrian Coast’ headboard (as carried by 37/4s, as well as the Cambrian steam railtours in the late 1980s) painted by the late Terry Couling (a Swindon-trained painter who worked for the Western Region of BR).
Thank you to Kes Jones and Phil Mason (Talyllyn), George Romary and Neil Evans (Borth Station Museum) and Kev Couling for the kind loans of these headboards.
By lunchtime on the day after arriving, locomotive and tender were reunited ready for a special meeting: we had arranged for ex-BR fireman John ‘Abergynolwyn’ Davies (pictured above, with his daughter Heather) to be interviewed on camera about his time working the locomotive. John is now 94 (and still lives within a mile of the sheds in Aberystwyth), but
remembers clearly his time on steam: his footplate diaries show that he spent a week on No.9017 on trains to Welshpool, as well as on other duties on ‘Dukedogs’ too.
Great efforts were made to keep John ‘Abergynolwyn’ from seeing the loco, until the ‘big reveal’ on camera: he came around the corner (accompanied by his daughter Heather), and was visibly moved to see a Dukedog back in Aberystwyth. He was immediately all over it, showing presenter Rob Shelley how to oil the locomotive up! It was a very pleasant reunion, and a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. The clip made the ITV news on the following evening, and can be seen on our Facebook page.
Unusually, No.7 was also in steam that day, working ballast trains: presenter Rob Shelley had a short footplate visit, and interviewed the young footplate crew. Sadly, this hit the cutting room floor: but was significant in that it was the first genuine steam-worked
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ballast train on the Rheidol since the 1980s.
Next up was a special photoshoot with ‘Trackside’ magazine later that week: editor Mel Holley had got in touch, asking if we could line up No.9017 with No.8 (both locos being in BR black).
We had a small window to do this in, as museum exhibits were due to be shunted in within the following week. After two days on the lorry (with freezing weather meaning salt on the roads), No.9017 wasn’t looking at its best: a gang of our apprentices quickly set to to return the loco to Bluebell standards in time for the photoshoot. We also took the opportunity to touch up the shedplate.
No.8 was shunted in that afternoon,
creating a line-up not seen since the 1950s. Nick Broderick (from Trackside magazine) travelled from Peterborough to photograph it, making use of the sunset glow and ‘theatre-style’ lighting in the museum after dark. The ‘Cambrian Coast Express’ headboards (which ironically weren’t required by the TV crew in the end) came to the fore, and were positioned on the locomotive. The results can be seen on the front cover of Trackside magazine.
Jumping forward in our narrative slightly, the museum then opened to the public on 23rd March. On opening day, it was pleasing to see local railway bookseller Nigel Bird bringing his 7mm scale model of a Dukedog to pose on the running plate of the 1:1 prototype!
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Next to be reunited was Gedol Wyn Roberts, who had worked on the Dukedogs in BR days. His railway career began at Machynlleth in 1952, before heading to Slough. He then returned to Machynlleth, and was passed for driving in 1963. Gedol prepared No.7827 “Lydham Manor” for use on the royal train in 1963, and has the photos to prove it! (See page 20 of this issue). He brought his wife specially from Llandudno to see the locomotive, and together they spent a pleasant morning looking all over it.
Then we got an email ‘out of the blue’ from Andy Carey: “I’ve got something of interest for you, that might be appropriate for the Dukedog…”. This turned out to be a GWR/BR(W) ‘Boiler Empty’ sign, which had originated from Aberystwyth shed. As Andy said:
“It was collected by my older brother, Professor Roger Carey, when he was a student at Aberystwyth University between 1961 and 1966. My recollection is that he lodged with the mother of Danny Rowland, the shed master, for at least some of this time. He got involved with polishing up the “Manor” locos which was such a feature of the Cambrian lines for a few years. He collected quite a few items from around the the station”.
“This sign came to hang over my model railway back in Birmingham. It was equally rusty on both sides, so back in the 1960’s I painted the front in the red background and white lettering which you see now. I thought this is how it would
have looked when it was new, whenever that was! When we moved house, he took it with him, and it survived through several more of his house moves. After he died a few years ago, his daughters passed his railwayana on to me. The news that you would be displaying the ‘Dukedog” at your museum made me think it was time this sign went back home…and so here it is!”.
The artefact is now displayed on the Dukedog’s footplate, as it would have been in days gone by.
Neil Evans also kindly sent us a copy of a Peter Handford audio recording of ‘Dukedog’ No.9005 climbing the 1 in 75 of Llanbadarn Bank (between Aberystwyth and Bow Street) on a rainy morning in August 1956. This will occsasionally be played (with permission) in our museum, to really bring life to No.9017: thank you to Scott Waby and the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth for their help with digitising the 45rpm record.
Later in the year, we will be hosting a reunion of men who worked on the Cambrian line in steam days: thank you to Larry Bridges and John ‘Cushty’ Rogers for their help in organising this.
Whilst it is of course incredibly pleasing to have the Dukedog back on Cambrian metals for the first time in over sixty years, it is even more special to be recording memories of those who actually remember it!
However, the Aberystwyth arrivals weren’t finished yet…
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Whilst the Dukedog basked in the attention of TV cameras on its first morning back in Aberystwyth, another lorry rolled into the carpark: ‘Palmerston’ arrived from the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway. ..
A ramp was quickly built, and the loco was offloaded and shunted temporarily to the carriage shed for cleaning. The unloading and shunting was extensively filmed by John Wooden of the Ff&WHR media team, and is available to watch on both our and their Facebook pages.
‘Palmerston’ is of course visiting us for the season: it will spend the first half of the 2024 season on static display in the Vale of Rheidol Railway’s new Museum, Display
Aberystwyth station.. The locomotive will then enter the VoR workshops in July, for work to return it to traffic.
‘Palmerston’ will then feature (in steam) as the star guest at the line’s ‘Rheidol Steam Festival’ event from 24th-26th August, where it will be hauling trains to Devil’s Bridge.
Once again, a joint press release was written: this one was to tell the story of two partners from the Great Little Trains of Wales working together, collaborating for mutual benefit.
‘Palmerston’ was built in 1864, and is the oldest surviving engine to have worked on
& Events building at
on the Vale of Rheidol Railway. Llyr ap Iolo, Managing Director of the Vale of Rheidol Railway, said:“We are very grateful to Paul Lewin and the team at the Ff&WHR for agreeing to the loan of ‘Palmerston’ for the 2024 season. We are excited to have it running on the Vale of Rheidol Railway at our event in August: it has been ten years since its last visit to Aberystwyth, so it will be great to have it here again for all to experience once more”.
‘Palmerston’ is one of the original locomotives built for the Ffestiniog Railway, where it worked from the 1860s to the 1930s. During this time, it was hired to the Vale of Rheidol Railway to help with additional traffic generated by the opening of a large Territorial Army camp at Lovesgrove in 1912 and 1913. The loco also helped with moving timber traffic in the Rheidol valley, supporting the war effort of the time.
Paul Lewin, General Manager of the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways, said: “The Ff&WHR are striving to bring our railway alive for our visitors in a new way. We have invested heavily in interpretation and conservation of the historic loco works at Boston Lodge: rather than simply catching a fleeting glimpse of our locos and workshops, we will invite our visitors right in to the heart of the place. Similarly, the Rheidol team are making their impressive collection openly available for the first time. This is all great news for visitors, and it makes so much sense for us to work together.”
Paul continued: “For those looking to make the most of precious leisure time, a visit to Wales has never looked more appealing. As we prepare
to celebrate our platinum jubilee, we can only begin to imagine how pleased our founders would be to see us working together, striving to continue to be the best place to see narrow gauge steam”.
The news of the visit was announced in mid February (on a date coordinated with various railway press deadlines): it attracted attention, mainly in local media and in the railway press, with a second ‘hit’ when the locomotive actually arrived on Rheidol metals in March.
At the time of writing (late April 2024), the loco is currently temporarily off display in our workshops for assessment.
Subject to availability, the locomotive is booked to work on all three days of the ‘Rheidol Steam Festival’. It should also make an appearance on the ‘Sunset Steam Special’ on 28th August, working the 6pm special to Devils Bridge (returning by 9pm).
The loco will then make a few more appearances during early September, before returning to Porthmadog to star in the Ffestiniog Railway’s annual bygones weekend.
Will you be travelling to Aberystwyth to see it? It is a loco with genuine Rheidol heritage, which will only be operating for a few days in late August and early September.
It isn’t often that we host a visiting locomotive. Don’t miss your chance to have a ride behind ‘Palmerston’ at the Vale of Rheidol Railway!
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Next to arrive was a lorry from Surrey on 5th March, containing Barclay diesel shunter No.721: this loco is operational, and was driven off the lorry under its own power.
The loco is a four-wheeled diesel hydraulic locomotive, built for the MOD in 1987 by Andrew Barclay and Sons in Kilmarnock. It was one of five locomotives built for use at MOD Chilmark in Wiltshire. This was a huge site, criss-crossed by narrow gauge railways to move munitions through the densely wooded site.
Around two minutes of footage of Barclay No.721 (in its guise as NG52) can be seen on the Telerail DVD ‘Marchwood and Chilmark –Military Railways’, shunting the site at Dinton and drawing trains through the woodland.
The loco is too small to work passenger trains, and is not currently fitted with air brakes.
However, it is stored serviceable at present and is occasionally used for shunting moves around the site at Aberystwyth.
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Our next arrival was eagerly anticipated: the Isle of Man carriage No.F68, which arrived in Aberystwyth (from Surrey) on 6th March for its starring role in our new museum. The vehicle arrived without ceremony on 6th March.
The carriage has just had a 40+ year restoration on Peter Rampton’s site. The team working on it had put an awful lot of effort into producing an
excellent quality on the paintwork: how do you preserve this, whilst transporting it on a road journey to Aberystwyth?
The answer is to put the whole carriage inside a curtain sided lorry, which travelled to the railway overnight. The vehicle was unloaded and moved briefly into our workshops, before being carefully shunted into the museum by the newly arrived Barclay diesel NG 52.
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The museum opened as planned on 23rd March, without ceremony. It was certainly a busy day, with many coming to see the Dukedog back in Aberystwyth for the first time in over 60 years.
Following the ‘first day’ rush, the building settled down to a routine of being open daily. It has definitely found its niche: passengers comment daily on how it adds value to the Rheidol experience.
The building is of course to be used as a venue for the local community too: the railway is putting on a busy series of lunchtime concerts and events throughout the year (see later in this issue), as well as using the space for larger events such as evening concerts and model railway exhibitions.
The first of these was over the Easter Holidays, when the museum was used for children’s activities. Whilst usually outside the scope of this magazine, the event saw plenty for the under 7s to do: colouring, art challenges, story-telling sessions (with the storyteller sat on the bufferbeam of ‘Margaret’), a dress-up box, music and more. It was noticeable that parents stayed virtually all afternoon, enjoying the happy atmosphere.
The space was also used for a Home Educators Day on 15th April. This attracted huge interest online, with a healthy stream of emails asking for details. Sadly this didn’t transpire into bookings, with numbers in
the low twenties attending. However, it was noticeable that those that did attend travelled far (Llanidloes, Fishguard, up the coast above Machynlleth etc), whilst the ‘post-event’ emails were incredibly complimentary. Pupils enjoyed a creative writing workshop, sessions on STEM (forces and pistons) and learnt about how steam locomotives work. We hope to serve this market more in future, and will be working with them to put on similar events later in the year.
We’ve also welcomed multiple school parties, who’ve been able to include guided tours of the museum as part of our existing ‘evacuee’ educational package. Alongside this, we’ve also recently welcomed a reporter from The Guardian writing a piece about the top seaside towns in Britain. We also enjoyed a visit from family of YouTubers (making a visit to Wales, organised by Visit Wales), as well as a visit by a film crew from the comms team at Transport for Wales.We’ve also welcomed industry partners in Network Rail (visiting regarding upcoming collaborations), provided guided tours for specialist group visits such as ‘Loose Ends’ (a group of retired engineers from Lampeter), all alongside the usual ‘bread and butter’ coach parties and groups.
Meanwhile, the railway has run smoothly outside. Nos.7 and 8 have handled traffic for the start of the year. Over the Easter weekend, both locos were paired with appropriate stock (No.7 on the GWR set, and No.8 on the blood and custard rake), which was appreciated by photographers.
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In mid April, an unusual procession of locomotives were seen being propelled into the workshop building: Sabero No.1, the Dick Kerr locomotive and the Sabero Mines Director’s saloon. All three were shunted onto the pit road to undergo preparatory work to allow them to be displayed in a museum setting.
This was followed by a large shunt on April 18th: ‘Palmerston’ and Baldwin No.590 were both moved across to the workshops: No.590 for contract work, and ‘Palmerston’ for initial work to prepare for work later in the year. Their space in the museum was filled by the Sabero, the Dick Kerr loco and the saloon.
It is a first opportunity to see the Sabero loco and the DIck Kerr petrol-electric, as they have formed part of a private collection for over the last forty years. The vehicles were saved for preservation by the late Peter Rampton, and are now on display in the new museum in Aberystwyth.
Dick Kerr petrol electric No.18 is a very early petrol-electric engine, which was built in 1918. These locomotives were built by order of the War Department in two batches (in 1916 and 1918 respectively), and would have worked on the front line carrying munitions and supplies in WW1. The engine is a very unusual survivor, and is now on public display.
Sabero No.1 was built in 1895 by Couillet,
and worked on the Hulleras de Sabero railway in Spain. It was one of a group of locomotives saved for preservation by Peter Rampton: this is the first time that No. 1 has been seen on public since it arrived in the UK in 1969.
The Hulleras de Sabero Directors Coach is a small four-wheeled carriage, with a veranda on each end and longtitudal seating on each side. It is displayed coupled to Sabero No.1, as survivors from the same railway.
Later in the year, Garratt No.60 will be coming out of the museum to haul heavy trains to Devil’s Bridge over the summer. ‘Margaret’ and the Wren (both currently on display) both have appearances planned for later this year too, working ‘Driver Experience’ sessions at both ends of the line.
A lot of thought has gone into the design of the building, to allow this to be performed swiftly and easily: removable battens in the flangeways mean that it is a straightforward process to shunt with a diesel locomotive. It also means that we can rotate the displays, putting items from Peter’s collection on public display.
The venue is proving to be both versatile and flexible: it has many uses to benefit both the railway and the local community. Comments from visitors have been excellent so far.
Will you be joining us this Summer, to come and see it for yourself?
Above: Gedol Wyn Roberts and his wife visited the museum in March. Gedol worked as a fireman at Machynlleth shed in the 1950s, before moving to Slough. He returned to Machynlleth in the 1960s, where he prepped No.7827 ‘Lydham Manor’ for use on the royal train in 1963 (see right). He remembers working Dukedogs in and around Machynlleth in the 1950s.
No.8 shunting in the carriage shed: 3rd November 2023.
Below: John ‘Abergynolwyn’ Davies and his daughter Heather, stood in front of No.9017. This photo was taken during the ITV filming in late February, when John was reunited with the Dukedog.
Carey (above) with the ‘boiler empty’ sign, as rescued by his late brother Professor Roger Carey (below left). On the right - we made the front cover! Narrow and standard gauge together, with the first pairing of Nos.8 and 9017 in BR Black. The cover is reproduced here with permission.
The engineering prototype of a new 009 model, spotted at Warley in November. ..
Andy
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We have expanded our programme for schools, both as part of our existing Evacuee Experience and as a venue for Cross Curricular days for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. With a few bookings in the diary already (and more to follow), the building is already showing its worth.There are two more Home Educators days coming up on 19th June and 9th October, as well as an educational event planned for Friday 8th November to mark National STEAM day (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths). The activities
for children will return on the Tuesday of half term (28th May) in an expanded format.
We also have children’s author Christopher Vine booked to appear on Wednesday 29th May, to run a ‘Young Engineers’ day for 6-12 year olds. This will involve a look behind the scenes in the workshop, as well as finding out how a steam locomotive works. Subject to availability, participants will also get to drive a small steam locomotive.
Above and below: Behind the scenes of the ITV filming in February 2024: from filming to editing!
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The railway is playing its part in local community events too: we are pleased to be working with the ‘Red Kite Challenge’ to take supporters to Devil’s Bridge to attend a running event in late April. We’re also collaborating with Afan Cycles to run a ‘Bike vs Train’ event on 19th May, where cyclists will attempt to beat the 10.30 train to Devil’s Bridge.They reckon that it is possible by pedal power in 58 minutes, start to stop: who will win? Come and find out!
The museum is also being used as an unusual venue for a Creative Writing workshop on Monday 6th May, as part of the Aberystwyth Poetry Festival. The day will be run by visiting writers, with railway-themed poetry and stories also being read to visitors.
We’ve also collaborated with Aberystwyth University to hold a large concert in the museum in July, as part of the Musicfest Aberystwyth festival. This is a collaboration between Ty Cerdd, Sinfonia Cymru and Philomusica to provide new music for Wales, written by Welsh composers. Funded by the Arts Council of Wales, it promises to be a really special evening: do join us at 7.30pm on 24th July if you can.
The museum will also be playing host to a series of lunchtime concerts during the season. Running (roughly) on bi-weekly Saturday lunchtimes, we hope that they will be a draw for shoppers and families visiting Aberystwyth. There is something to suit all tastes: from community choirs to ukulele groups, via a jazz band and a string quartet! Dates are available on our website.
Above right: a view through the spectacle plate window of ‘Palmerston’, looking towards the Dukedog. An unusual pairing of locos: could they have met at Minfordd in previous years...?
Above left: Tom Bright (editor, ‘Steam Railway’ magazine’) and Tim Dunn (TV presenter and historian) visited Aberystwyth in February regarding some upcoming filming.
There are a couple of private hire bookings in the diary too: for example, the glass atrium is being used as an unusual venue for a business networking breakfast in July. We’ve also welcomed a couple of visiting TV crews (news crews from BBC and ITV, a piece on railway art for ITV ‘X’, and a recce from the production company of ‘Salvage Hunters’) among other things. Life is never dull…
In other news, we’ve also been meeting with Dr Marian Gwyn and Race Council Cymru regarding telling the stories of the ‘Wales to the World’ project: this has led us to be part of a museum collection audit in early May, which is the first step towards achieving this. The review will be carried out by Peter Alexander, who is an experienced heritage consultant and collections reviewer.
The venue is also being used as a space to display the ‘Windrush 75’ film (produced by Race Council Cymru), as part of a special community screening for Aberystwyth: keep an eye on our website and social media for details.
Moving on to more traditional ‘railway’ activities, don’t forget the Sunset Steam Specials running on Wednesday evenings in August (plus a bonus one in late July too). As a special ‘end of the summer holidays’ treat, the trip on Wednesday 28th August will be hauled by visiting locomotive ‘Palmerston’ (subject to availability).
The highlight of the year promises to be the Rheidol Steam Festival, held over the August Bank Holiday weekend (24th-26th
August). There will be a variety of locos in steam over all three days, including visiting loco ‘Palmerston’ working trains to Devil’s Bridge. We hope to be able to announce more details in the following issue.
We shall be holding a ‘Behind the Scenes’ day on 21st September, in conjunction with CADW’s Open Doors Festival:an opportunity to discover how the railway works.
Finally, there comes the ‘doesn’t really fit into anything else’ category: we’ll be playing host to the Aberystwyth SteamPunk festival on 12th/13th October, which will see displays and costumed characters dotted around the museum. Look out for a Peacock Parade, Teapot racing and more!
More traditionally (for us), we’ll also be holding an evening of photography in the museum on 18th October, with another pencilled in for November too. This will be an opportunity to photograph the exhibits after dark, under impressive lighting (with barriers temporarily removed).
We’re also excited to be holding a model railway exhibition in the town on 26th October: this will have approximately 15 layouts on display, as well as samples of the Revolution Trains ‘009’ scale Rheidol tank on display. A particular highlight will be the appearance of the Rev Wilbert Awdry’s ‘Ffarquhar’ layout, featuring the original Thomas the Tank Engine model.
Oh, and then there’s Christmas: keep an eye out for details to follow…
It has clearly been a busy quarter: lots of news, and hardly a picture of a Rheidol tank so far! Here is No.7 climbing the valley on a bright April morning in 2024.
Below: ...Brecon reunited? A new view in the musuem, with ‘Graf Scherwin Lowitz’ and ‘Redstone’ both in view alongside ‘Margaret’. Phil Budd
Simon Reeves
Left (upper): a general view of the museum, with new exhibits on show.
Left (lower): a cosmopolitan selection of motive power in the running shed! This was the view for one evening only, as the shed and museum was shunted. If you modelled this in 16mm scale, would someone say: “that would never happen in real life....?”.
Upper: An impromptu De Winton line up, prior to entering the museum.
Below: a Sabero on shed! Seen from the footplate of No.8, prior to the Spanish loco going on display in the museum.
Pics: Phil Budd.
TR No.4
“Edward Thomas”
Talyllyn Railway No.4 (“Edward Thomas”) is in the final stages of its contract overhaul,. It is currently dismantled for painting and lining, prior to varnishing and final assembly.
The loco will carry Kerr Stuart lined grey livery, similar to ‘Diana’ and our own Wren locomotive.
Talyllyn Railway
New ballast wagon
The design and build contract for the new ballast wagon for the Talyllyn Railway is now complete, and ready for delivery,
Left: the loco on the workshop floor : note the temporary 2’3” gauge rails laid onto both roads, to accommodate No.4 and the ballast wagon.
UPDATE
Other contract work
The bogie overhaul for the Manx Electric Railway trailer car is complete.
‘Typhoon’ (No.7 from the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway) is now fully stripped and work starts on overhaul of chassis and repairs to the boiler.
Home Fleet
All five operational locos (Nos.7 and 8, the Garratt, ‘Margaret’ and the Wren) passed their annual exams in February and are now ‘in ticket’, ready for work during the year.
Both Rheidol tanks saw use on four days of photo charters at the start of the season, before settling down to a regular pattern of operation on daily services. The Garratt is currently on display in the museum, but is planned to see use on service trains over the Summer (keep an eye on the ‘loco roster’ page of our website for dates).
The ‘‘Wren’ and ‘Margaret’ are both available for ‘Driver Experience sessions during the year.
Mechanical maintenance of all carriages is complete.
Carriage No.5 (seen in the last issue) is now in traffic, following a complete repaint over the Winter.
Carriage No.9 had minor repairs and a complete repaint, and is now also in traffic.
Carriage No.4 has been fully rebuilt and repainted and is now back in traffic.
Carriage No.3 has been stripped: the chassis was sandblasted and painted, the framework repaired, with a new floor and subframe to the body. This is now complete, with the carriage ready for reskinning: our aim is for it to be fully rebuilt and repainted to enter traffic in early June.
Following an extensive winter programme of planting bulbs and cutting back invasive brambles, the volunteers turned their attention during February to planning the activities for the following spring. This inevitably resulted in much discussion over packed lunches and flasks of coffee, wherever we happened to be working!
Weeding was the main task during late February and early March, with Aberystwyth being the main focus for Colin, Philip, Katherine, Mark and Clive.They weeded every bed in all garden areas at least once, working very carefully between the newly emerging bulbs and already established potentillas and smoke bushes in the corner beds. More weeding took place along the long bed in the new car parking space to allow the trees more room for new growth, and to prepare the bed for further planting.
New planting plans for this year have seen primulas and polyanthus placed in the beds by the entrance to the shop and ticket office, and in the wooden half - barrel planters which are situated around the station concourse and on the platforms. This scheme follows remarks overheard by volunteers made by passengers on the railway throughout the year, many of whom would exclaim how lovely the flowers are and this gave the volunteers an impetus to continue to develop these areas.
Other tasks undertaken further up the line are weeding around the white stones
that make up the ‘sign’ at Aberffrwd station, although the stones themselves still need to be painted when a dry spell occurs. Also on the cards is weeding and clearing at Capel Bangor and Devils Bridge Station where a ‘tipsy’ conifer was secured in a more upright position until further remedial action can be taken to prevent further damage.
An interesting situation occurred at Nantyronen station, when the Ceanothus Bush (with lovely blue flowers) had to be quite severely cut back because of sight line issues for the level crossing. We will endeavour to move the Ceanothus in due course to another area which gives it the space it needs, and replant with a shrub of more modest growth. Ideas from passengers and staff are always helpful in enabling us to maximise the spaces that are within the railway grounds, whilst maintaining acceptable safety standards.
As the new season progresses and train journeys return, please take a moment on your travels to appreciate the beauty of the local wildlife around the rural intermediate stations and at Devil’s Bridge station. in particular, note the wildflower meadow flanking the footpath from the new car park at Devil’s Bridge down to the station approach, as well as the areas lineside which show drifts of bluebells in May: these can only be seen from the train.
These areas are already attracting species such as the pine marten and red admiral butterfly.
Left (upper): A view along the platform on a bright Spring morning, as the empty coaching stock arrives into the platform to form the 1030 departure. The bright colours of the flower beds in Aberystwyth are often noticed and commented on by passengers!
Above: Another view of the running in board at Aberystwyth. There are plenty of other floral displays to enjoy around the site: look out for the new flower tubs outside the museum, as well as the various boarders around the site. Pics: Phil Budd.
Another often missed feature on display at Rhiwfron Halt is the stonework frame, comprising the cable anchor block of the cable line which hauled the buckets of metal ore from the leadmine across the river Rheidol up to the correct position where they could easily be emptied out into the wagons below, enabling onward transport to the dockside at Aberystwyth. Further detailed information about the cable line at Rhiwfron can be found in the book ‘The Vale of Rheidol Railway in Detail’, available from the bookshops at both Aberystwyth and Devil’s Bridge.
The team of volunteers meets about once a week to tend the garden areas around the stations of the railway and assist when requested with some light maintenance work such as cleaning and repainting the station buildings. If you are interested in joining the team, please speak to a member of staff who will direct you to the correct contact person.
To all past and prospective passengers on our railway, we thank you for travelling with us and hope that you enjoy your visit as much as we enjoy our work of planting up the stations.
News from the Brecon Mountain Railway
News from our Southern correspondent....
We are thrilled to share that the acquisition process to welcome the Brecon Mountain Railway (BMR) into the VoR family is well underway. However, as expected, it is a complex endeavour.
The railway’s trackbed traverses various landowner’s properties, resulting in multiple leases to transfer and licences to be granted. And that’s just the beginning – identifying assets and arranging intricate agreements precedes the actual takeover.
Having visited the BMR multiple times, I’ve been consistently impressed by its impeccable presentation and the warm hospitality of the staff. The journey itself is nothing short of picturesque and engaging, especially the thrilling ascent up to Torpantau! Recognising the railway’s potential, we are eager to enhance the visitor experience and explore avenues for revenue generation, such as retail and hospitality improvements. Plans are already in motion, with potential partnerships lined up for early 2025.
My tenure in Orkney concludes at the end of June, after which I’ll relocate to Llandovery. Beginning in early July, my focus will shift to ensuring a seamless transition for the BMR.
Our goal is to maintain the 2024 season as originally planned, including the eagerly anticipated 88 Santa special trains!
Looking ahead, there are many exciting avenue to explore: we envision the introduction of new rolling stock, expanded services, and even contemplation of a future extension to the Northern end of the line.
The outlook for the combined railways is exceptionally promising, and I eagerly anticipate welcoming you to the BMR in the near future.
Stuart Williams General Manager (Designate), Brecon Mountain Railway. Brecon Mountain Railway
....that front cover...
...or a tale of photographic devilment...
Back in early March, a crew was shunting exhibits into the museum.
As part of this, the 7.25” Lawley (“Zulu”) was loaded onto a flat wagon to be moved to the site. The plan was that it would then be carefully loaded into the glass atrium for display.
For a few minutes, the loco was sat on the wagon outside the museum. Time to pop out of the office for a quick photo...
After the obligitary ‘front 3/4’ shot, there was time to look closer at the loco. A quick phone-shot taken inside the cab (looking through the spectacle plate: taken at around head height, standing alongside the wagon), then the shunt continued.
Back in the office, the pictures were transferred to a bigger screen: a false sense of perspective gave the impression that it was taken from a full-sized Lawley locomotive, facing ‘tender first’ towards Devil’s Bridge. In fact, it looked quite passable. I wonder...
After checking with management, the photograph was quietly put up on the Vale of Rheidol Railway Facebook page (with a suitably innocent caption about shunting exhibits into the museum).
Within the hour, comments began appearing on the page. Had we got a full-sized Lawley? Would it be on public display? In fact, the phone was soon ringing with enquiries from as far afield as Australia and South Africa...
As planned, we revealed the picture a few hours later. We were pleased to see that we managed to take people in, a few days before April Fools Day!
Did it work as a publicity stunt? It certainly produced plenty of online engagement, and shows the global reach of Facebook posts. It certainly helped in raising the profile of the museum, a few days before it opened.
With apologies to those who we did take in (!), here are the photos to show how we did it...
Above: An unusual cavalacde of locos heads to the museum on a bright April morning.You can see these locos on display: have you visited yet?
Below: Looking just like a model, No.8 poses in an almost empty museum. This photo was taken whilst shunting to set up the photoshoot for the cover of ‘Trackside’ magazine.
