The "Welsh Highland Ffestival 2000" Gala on September 16-17th 2000 was staged in the face of adversity, as it came at the end of a week in which protests about fuel tax came close to bringing the UK to a standstill, and circumstances forced the curtailment of some planned activities. Attendances were substantial nevertheless, and the event allowed visitors to sample complementary aspects of the Welsh Highland - the new era as represented by the Garratts and modern coaches, and the heritage experience offered by locomotives and rolling stock with Welsh Highland associations stretching back into the 19th Century.
Russell
As might have been expected, Russell was the star of the show. The 1906-built Hunslet is the sole survivor of the original WHR fleet, and is the pride of WHR (Porthmadog), whose volunteers restored it from dereliction over a 20-year period. However apart from visits to the FR in 1988 and 1990, the restored Russell's operations had been confined to the short, level run at WHR (Porthmadog). The runs on the FR had given some idea of what Russell was like "with the loud pedal pressed", but September 2000 finally provided the experience of the loco on its original stamping ground, with gradients almost twice as steep as those on the FR.
The manner of Russell's arrival at Dinas on September 13th was a little undignified; let's hope it isn't too long before the loco can arrive from Porthmadog without needing a low loader!
Even though Russell ran double-headed with FR locos, the sights and sounds were truly impressive, and could only whet the appetite for the day when Russell can run heritage trains over the entire Welsh Highland route. The loco's visit to WHR (Caernarfon) showed a meeting of minds that would perhaps have seemed fanciful a while before, and illustrated the maturity, diversity and solidity of the Welsh Highland restoration.
A double-headed train is seen below at Hendy, Pont Wernlas Ddu, and on return from Waunfawr to Dinas. When running with Mountaineer, the latter had to be marshalled at the front as its front coupling was found to be too low to couple satisfactorily with Russell's rear coupling.
The same pairing is seen below on the second day of the Gala, first passing Pont Wernlas Ddu, and then arriving and running round at Waunfawr.
Before this visit, Russell's last run over the original WHR route in 1937 was surely a melancholy affair, returning stock to Dinas after closure of the line. The loco then slumbered in the old Dinas loco shed (on the site of today's machine shop in the South Yard), until purchased in 1942 under the aegis of the Ministry of Supply for wartime service at the Brymbo Steel Company's Hook Norton Ironstone Quarries in Oxfordshire, which needed a powerful 2-foot gauge loco able to pass under a bridge with only eight feet of vertical clearance; so could the visually unfortunate (and since undone) surgery performed by Boston Lodge in 1923 (in a vain attempt to make Russell fit the old Moelwyn Tunnel) in fact have been the loco's salvation?
There is also a page of pictures and video clips from Russell's visit at the WHR (Porthmadog) site, plus pictures of Palmerston's simultaneous reciprocal visit to Gelert's Farm.
Single Fairlie Taliesin was the latest addition to the FR steam fleet, a recreation of the original Victorian loco, incorporating a few surviving components. The NWNGR operated three Single Fairlies, one of which (combined from two originals), Moel Tryfan, survived into the 1920s-1930s Welsh Highland period. A few bits of it are still around - the trailing bogie centre is on display at WHR (Porthmadog) while its wheelsets are incorporated in the pony trucks of the FR's Blanche and Linda. Also, some of the last duties of the original Taliesin were on WHR workings over the southern end of the line, between Portmadoc (as was) and Beddgelert.
Taliesin is seen below with a solo working to Caernarfon on the first day of the event, and passing Cae Moel the next day, on a double-headed train to Waunfawr with Mountaineer.
Preparing for its last train of the day on the first day of the Gala, Taliesin seemed determined to put on a display of moody steam effects.
The Gala also saw a rake of vintage carriages visiting from the FR - nos. 11, 12 and 17, which all saw service on the old WHR, plus the original NWNGR/WHR carriage which is now FR no. 23.
The notice that came with carriage no. 11 was a little premature - there is the small matter of rebuilding 18 miles of railway from Waunfawr to Porthmadog Harbour to complete first! Having been delivered with the coach and put in place to see if anyone noticed, the notice remained throughout the weekend.
The rake was completed by FR semi-open tourist car no. 37. Although only built in 1971, it and its sister no. 38 have some WHR ancestry, as their half-height doors had been removed from ex-WHR coaches 23 and 26 when they were fitted with glazed full-height doors in 1965.
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