There's a Fairlie at the bottom of the garden

In September 2022 we rented a delightful bungalow near Porthmadog that had an unexpected bonus - a grandstand view of the Ffestiniog Railway running past the back garden.

I soon learned when the two morning trains were due and amused myself waving to the passengers and seeing how many waved back. 

Our enthusiasm for the Ffestiniog Railway rekindled, we booked our place on a morning train for a trip to Blaenau Ffestiniog.  Unfortunately, we were obliged to return to Porthmadog on the same train, so wouldn't be able to hop off at one station, walk to the next one, then board a later train - a favourite pursuit of ours.  That was a pity, not least because the best way to photograph a train is not to be on it, and there's a nice footpath between Tan-y-Bwlch and Blaenau Ffestiniog that runs close to the line.

To make up for our disappointment, on another day we stopped off for coffee and cake at Tan-y-Bwlch, and also spent some time sampling the cuisine at Porthmadog Station. 

Our morning train arriving at Porthmadog Station. On the left, the 'WHR' engine is getting ready to travel the Welsh Highland line, which runs via Beddgelert to Caernarfon. I would love to have travelled on the WHR but the only train running the full length of the line during our week in North Wales was fully booked. 

Despite the wording on the third coach, this little engine was about to haul The Woodland Wanderer on the Ffestiniog Railway to Tan-y-Bwlch.

As you may know, Porthmadog used to be called Portmadoc, for the very good reason that its port was developed by a guy called Madocks.  It was he who had The Cob built across Traeth Mawr to exclude the tides and create much valuable farmland. It also gave a route for his railway to cross the estuary. Here's the view from the train, looking towards the hills of Snowdonia.

The most picturesque station on the line is surely Tan-y-Bwlch. Here, The Woodland Wanderer has offloaded its passengers into the station cafe. Now it awaits the passing of the Blaenau Ffestiniog train before heading back to Porthmadog. 

Blanche's engineman and fireman are deep in conversation. "Do you think they'll miss us in Porthmadog if we stay here, Dewi?" "Nah, Rhys, Blanche knows her way home without us!"

Coincidentally, here's Blanche again at Tan-y-Bwlch, this time when I saw her during my honeymoon in 1970.  Fifty two years later the love affair continues - with North Wales, with steam railways and (of course) with each other.

And here comes the afternoon train to Blaenau, hauled by one of the line's strange Fairlie double-ended locomotives - precursors of modern double-ended diesel locos, I suppose. 

Back in 1970 the Ffestiniog Railway terminated here, at Ddaullt Station. The old route from Ddaullt to Blaenau Ffestiniog had been lost when the Central Electricity Generating Board flooded part of the track bed for their new reservoir at Tanygrisiau. It took the Ffestiniog Railway's volunteers 14 years of hard work to carve out a new route, which included a tunnel and a spiral at Ddaullt so that the line could pass high above the power station.  I took this photo as our train passed over the line from Tan-y-Bwlch.

Rounding the tight curve above Ddaullt on our way back from Blaenau Ffestiniog.

The cause of the deviation: Tanygrisiau reservoir and its 'pumped storage' power station. During off-peak hours water is pumped from Tanygrisiau up 350 metres to Llyn Stwlan.  When demand for electricity rises, the water is released back down the mountain to drive turbines and produce electricity.

Finally, a couple of photos of Blaenau Ffestiniog station; not the most beautiful of places, but a necessary objective for an ambitious little railway called The Ffestiniog.

Newent's canal that became a railway and will be a canal again

Once upon a time the Hereford & Gloucestershire canal ran past the little town of Newent.  The canal had opened between Gloucester and Ledbury in 1798, at the height of 'canal mania', was extended to Hereford in 1845 and then, having cost far more that its enthusiastic promotors expected, immediately tried to sell itself to a railway company. 

In 1881 the Great Western Railway took over the moribund operation and made plans to convert the Gloucester-Newent section to a railway – the Gloucester & Ledbury – that opened in 1885. 79 years later it too closed, a victim of the infamous Beeching Axe.

In 1983 a society was formed with the aim of restoring the old canal. Since a large length had been obliterated by the railway and the rest had descended into an extreme state of disrepair, this was going to be a huge undertaking that would take decades to accomplish.  Many a doubting Thomas would surely have dismissed the society's plans as an over-ambitious pipe dream, but preservation societies like this one clearly don't understand the meaning of 'impossible'.  Moreover, they have the backing of the Canal & River Trust, who are responsible for maintaining our existing network and have seen over 200 miles of derelict canals returned to use in the last two decades. 

I'd heard that the preservation society had been active around Newent, so went to investigate. First, I walked along the Geopark Way, hoping to get to the mouth of Oxenhall Tunnel (near Holder's Farm on the map above). I have a fascination for tunnels and this one had the bonus of an arched structure nearby called "Leggers' Rest" where, according to the society's website, a gang of men, retained to assist boats through the tunnel, would await their next job. 

The first part of the Geopark Way was easy walking.  I saw a restored aqueduct and plenty of evidence of the canal channel having been dredged.  The highlight, however, was the restored House Lock (top left on my first two maps) and its lovely lockkeeper's cottage.  In a hundred years' time I'd love to come back, live in that cottage and sell ice creams to passing canal boaters!

Beyond House Lock there's a lovely stretch of path beside a large lake – Furnace Pond – but after this the path deteriorates, with muddy stretches and rampant undergrowth.

By the time I reached Cold Harbour Lane Bridge I was battling 10ft high undergrowth. Would I ever make it to the tunnel?

NO. A sign just beyond the bridge declared that there was no public access beyond that point, so my exploration of Legger's Rest will have to wait for the hard-working preservation society volunteers to clear a way.

I made my way back towards Newent, partly by road to avoid the mud and weeds, then set off to find the old railway station.  This is what it looked like in its heyday...

Photo: Wikipedia

... and this is what it looks like in 2024, though only after preservation society members had expended an enormous amount of effort to remove 50 years' worth of rubbish and undergrowth.

Here the canal restorers have a bit of a problem as the old canal lies buried about 6 feet beneath the track bed. In order to cross the B4125, west of the station, canal boats will have to be raised to track level, then higher again, before being lowered at the other side.  I imagine that three locks would do the job, but it seems that the associated earthworks would be rather too intrusive. According to Wikipedia —

In 2019 they therefore proposed the use of an inclined plane, using a cradle running on rails to raise boats from the canal level up to the station, with a level section between the platforms, followed by another incline to reach the height required to cross the road and another incline to return boats to the level of the canal on the other side.

Now that should be impressive!  Though I doubt that I'll live to see it.

 

Hereforedshire & Gloucestershire Canal Trust

Tolcarne Junction

This is (or rather was) a seldom-photographed corner of my layout.  Scenery was rudimentary as it simply existed to bring the St Petrock branch line around my desk at the end of the railway room. Bourdon Mill is on the right and the rotating storage sidings in the foreground. 

Trains from St Petrock station are imagined to take three different routes.  Most go up the North Cornwall 'main' line to Halwill Junction and Okehampton, whilst the branch trains go either to Tregarrick North (Southern region) or Tregarrick General (Western region).  In truth, they all followed the same line into the storage sidings. But not any more... 

Trains for Tregarrick North now diverge at Tolcarne Junction.  The only service on this line is this Auto Train, which doesn't need to be turned before returning to St Petock, so a simple storage line on the other side of the backscene suffices.

Tolcarne Junction only has three signals.  The rest are 'off scene', but even if the junction was fully signalled, the signal box would only need 9 or 10 levers. The signal box is consequently rather too large for the job, but its a beautiful model that I found hard to resist buying.  I justify its existence by postulating that the junction was once more complex, with a passing loop on the 'main' line, but that the layout was simplified in the 1930s. 

The photos above show the Peco Smartswitch control board and its associated bank of switches. Together they control the three signals at Tolcarne Junction and the turnout.  On the left is an auto/manual switch that, in the 'auto' position, transfers control to the Automatic Crispin (Raspberry Pi computer).  

I was determined that Tolcarne Junction would operate automatically. When I run the railway, I am the signalman at St Petrock; I can't be the signalman up the line as well, or I would be sending trains to myself!

The 'Train Detect' button at Tolcarne Junction duplicates the action of a Block Signalling BOD-2 RLY infra-red train detector. I suppose I could have made one myself, but this little fellow does the job faultlessly, is very neat and cost £17.  It tells the Automatic Crispin, after a suitable time delay, to ring either 2-1 (train out of section) for an up train, or 2 (train entering section) for a down train. 

This bank of relays is controlled by the Raspberry Pi.  Four of the relay outputs duplicate the Tolcarne Junction signal and turnout switches, and a fifth switches power to the rotating storage sidings.

Finally, just to assure my loyal reader that Tolcarne Junction really does connect with something, here's a photo of the rest of the railway, with the lid removed from the storage sidings. 

St Petrock goes AC

Once upon a long time ago I was privileged to be a regular operator on Peter Denny's famous Buckingham model railway. My station for the best part of 37 years was Grandborough Junction, where one of my important jobs was to communicate with the signal box up the line at Quainton Road... except that there wasn't a Quainton Road on the model.  To simulate this station, Peter built an amazing electro-mechanical computer that ran the timetable, controlled the clock, set points in the storage sidings and communicated with the 'up' block instrument at Grandborough.

Hitherto, the 'Quainton Road' storage sidings had been operated by Peter's youngest son Crispin, but sons don't stay at home for ever. The computer that replaced him was therefore known as the Automatic Crispin. Peter wrote an article about it for the Railway Modeller and I well remember the title  - "Buckingham Goes AC".

It will therefore come as little surprise to friends and followers of the St Petrock saga that my station should also have a computer to simulate the signal box up the line. However, time and technology move on, so rather than building it from plywood and Meccano, I've used a Raspberry Pi single-board computer. In honour of its illustrious ancestry, though, it too is known as the Automatic Crispin.

Mine has a slightly simpler job to do as I don't have points on my storage sidings, but I did want it to display operational notes and the timetable for the St Petrock operator.

My first task was to learn how to instruct the Raspberry Pi to perform to my wishes, so I spent several weeks teaching myself Python, then writing a program.  Fortunately, Python has some similar features to the Control Basic language that I used to use at my work, so the task wasn't too daunting.  I also discovered that program code for many of the routines was available on the Internet.

Here's a little bit of the code that checks the St Petrock bell button and trip rail near the storage sidings, and displays the 'hours' value. It would probably turn expert programmers to drink, but it works and I'm actually rather proud of it.

def get_button_push(after_push_time):
    GPIO.output(12, GPIO.HIGH)
    while True:
        if (GPIO.input(20) == GPIO.HIGH):
            time.sleep(0.1)
        else:
            GPIO.output(12, GPIO.LOW)
            time.sleep(after_push_time)
            return()
def get_storage_exit():
    while True:
        if (GPIO.input(16) == GPIO.HIGH):
            time.sleep(0.1)
        else:
            time.sleep(2)
            return()

def display_clock(hour,clockhr,minute):
    if (minute == 0):
        rect = Rectangle(Point(377,10), Point(417,50))
        rect.setFill('black')
        rect.draw(win)
    if (clockhr)>9:
        txt = Text(Point(397,30),clockhr)
    else:
        txt = Text(Point(407,30),clockhr)
       
    txt.setTextColor('white')
    txt.setSize(30)
    txt.draw(win)

The screen is an Elecrow 5 inch LCD display that plugs directly into the Raspberry Pi and sits on top of it. Here's a close-up.  You'll see that the operator has a couple of instructions to carry out before train working No.2 can depart for Tregarrick North at 6.40am.

Now the M7 has been attached to its auto coaches and waits at platform 2. A light beneath the bell-push reminds the operator that the clock has stopped  – trains at St Petrock never run late! After checking that the rotating storage sidings are set to road 5, the operator presses the bell once (call attention). The signalman at Tolcarne Junction responds with one beat on the bell.

The St Petrock signalman (or frequently signalwoman) sets the points, then pulls off signals 15 (platform starter) and 12 (advanced starter). The Gas Street crossing keeper also obediently opens the gates.

St Petrock now rings '3 pause 1' – 'Is line clear for a stopping passenger train?' Tolcarne Junction responds by ringing 3-1 and turning the block instrument to 'LINE CLEAR' (green).

The M7 sets off with its train, past the signal box. (Note to self: "That box needs a name board and some levers!")

As the train passes the signal box, the signalman observes that it has a tail lamp (and therefore hasn't left its tail behind) and rings 2 bells (ding...ding... train entering section). Tolcarne Juntion acknowledges with 2 bells and turns the block instrument to 'TRAIN ON LINE' (red).

As the train enters the storage sidings it crosses this trip point (two breaks in the nearside rail) that momentarily energise a relay, instructing the Automatic Crispin to ring '2 pause 1' (train out of section).

St Petrock acknowleges with 2-1, which restarts the clock. The Gas Street crossing gates close once more and the sequence is complete.

Gas Street Level Crossing

I was determined to have an operational level crossing on my railway. As it's turned out, the crossing gates control a very minor road indeed, just the access to St Petrock gas works, but they do add operational interest and keep visitors enthralled. Crossing keeper Fred Cockram and his long-suffering wife are kept fully occupied and the couple have been rewarded with a nice house to live in.

It's recently dawned on me that Fred ought also to have a little shed by his crossing, from which to communicate with the signal man at St Petrock, so this will be added before too long.

The crossing gates are from Peco and they're operated by a pair of Peco Smartswitch servos. The challenge, of course, was to get the gates to open and close in sequence and this was achieved with a couple of micro-switches, activated by the servo arms.

In this photo the bottom left micro-switch is being held closed, so when the crossing is activated the right hand servo will move first. When it has completed its travel, it will close the top micro-switch and activate the other servo. The amount by which the servos move, and their speed, is controlled by the Smartswitch control module (on the right).


Here is a video of the crossing in operation...