The year's major enthusiast event took place over the weekend of September 13-14th. It featured similar attractions to 2002's very successful Superpower Weekend, but with some new twists, and most importantly, the extended railway to Rhyd Ddu. The sun shone, and the event attracted record numbers of visitors to WHR(C).

The special timetable featured a mix of the usual style of passenger trains, hauled by a single Garratt or the Funkey diesel, double-headed mixed trains with both Garratts, freight trains with an open coach at the rear for photographers (and brake coach no. 1001), and shorter trains hauled by Prince. The changes in formation and motive power involved some quite complex shunts at Dinas, as the loop at Caernarfon is too short to take the longest mixed formations that were run.

Dinas Scenes

Double Heading

Saturday's mixed train is seen below at various points on its journey. The return working ran with one loco at each end, to facilitate separating the formation back at Dinas.

Prince

WHR(C) seems to be becoming a home away from home for the Ffestiniog Railway's George England 0-4-0ST+T. Having been returned to the FR after his historic rôle in the first Phase 3 steam test trains and the Royal special in July, Prince came north again in September. During the weekend he worked late afternoon trains comprising semi-open no. 2002 and brake no. 1001, also picking up NWNGR replica no. 24 at Dinas for the run to Rhyd Ddu. Prince is seen below on the fuel road at Dinas, and with the train at Snowdon Ranger. Prince had some difficulty restarting the train from the full stop at the level crossing here, but was master of the load once on the move.

Velinheli

Another repeat visitor, the ex-Dinorwic Quarry Hunslet of 1886 is usually resident at the Launceston Steam Railway in Cornwall. As at the 2002 event, Velinheli spent the weekend giving footplate rides at Dinas.

Velinheli, Prince and FR brake carriage no. 10 arrived at Dinas over the weekend of September 6-7th. Since its last visit Velinheli has been discreetly fitted with vacuum brake equipment, and so can now run coupled to carriages or wagons on the WHR(C) main line, where only continuously braked trains are allowed. Velinheli and no. 10 ran to Rhyd Ddu on the evening of the 7th, the first Quarry Hunslet to run in that area since, presumably, the delivery and/or removal of Glanrafon Quarry's Silurian (1894 and c.1916) - and the first coal-fired loco to go past Waunfawr on the restored railway. Marcus Ingram's pictures illustrate the run.