The Vintage Weekend on September 22nd-23rd 2001 brought three visiting locos from the Ffestiniog Railway to WHR (Caernarfon). The event was sponsored by the Snowdonia Parc Brew Pub (Waunfawr), the Prince of Wales Hotel (Caernarfon) and Marston's Beer.

Prince

1863-built Prince made his first return visit to Caernarfon since he was delivered from George England's London works in that year - looking very different to how he is today, and named The Prince. The FR's first locos were hauled from Carnarvon (as it was then known - at the time it was the nearest standard gauge railway station to the FR) to Portmadoc (as it was then) on a specially built horse-drawn cart; this time Prince came by low loader! Like the other England locos still working in the 1920s and 1930s, Prince was a regular on WHR services, but this was the first time "The Old Gent" had worked on either of the modern WHR lines.

Like Palmerston in 1998 (see below), Prince worked with the chimney facing Porthmadog, whereas most historical pictures of England locos on the WHR show them pointing the other way round. The "wrong way round" suits present operating conditions better, as the present WHR (Caernarfon) run is uphill all the way from Caernarfon; once the line extends downhill into Beddgelert there will be a small dilemma to face!

Prince is seen above on the fuel road at Dinas on the Saturday evening, making an interesting size comparison with Beyer-Garratt no. 138, which is Prince's junior by some 95 years.

Taliesin

Recreated Single Fairlie Taliesin made a return visit, having also visited in 2000. Five vintage coaches were also brought from the FR, enabling a two-train service to be run. Prince and Taliesin hauled the vintage set, crossing the Garratt-hauled modern WHR(C) coaches at Dinas.

The visiting coaches were nos. 11 and 12, "bowsider" no. 17, original NWNGR/WHR no. 23, and replica Hudson "toastrack" no. 39. The first four of these had already operated at WHR(C) during the September 2000 event.

Taliesin was failed at Dinas with a blocked fuel pipe on the Saturday afternoon, leaving Prince to work the last vintage train of the day to Waunfawr solo, with a reduced load of three carriages. Fortunately the Fairlie was back in use on Sunday, when it worked one of its trains on its own, with a load of four carriages.

Lilla

Hunslet Lilla provided a popular "Drive an Engine" attraction at Dinas. It was the loco's second visit there. Built for Cilgwyn Quarry in Dyffryn Nantlle in 1891, Lilla was sold to the Penrhyn Quarries in May 1928, and was brought down the Bryngwyn Incline and Branch to Dinas Junction on the WHR, then loaded on to an LMS train for transfer to Port Penrhyn. A popular sight on special workings and "The Slate Shunt" since coming to the FR in 1993, Lilla was earning funds for a new boiler to replace what is believed to be (mostly) the 1891 original.

On the evening before the Vintage Weekend, Lilla made her first return to Tryfan Junction since departure in 1928, in what was presumably also her first ever visit there under her own steam (picture by Ian Butters, www.festrail.co.uk).

The views below show Lilla shunting Taliesin and the vintage coaches after the end of services on the Saturday. Lilla then worked a single-coach demonstration train from Dinas to Waunfawr and back - although the loco has vacuum brakes it is not allowed to haul fare-paying passengers on WHR(C), as it does not have "chopper" couplings. Unfortunately a sticking brake on carriage no. 12 complicated the shunt by temporarily immobilising the vintage coaches, with Lilla trapped at the inner end of the siding. Unlike the puzzles included in Lilla's "Slate Shunts" in Minffordd Yard, this complication was unplanned! The delay meant that departure did not take place until after daylight had faded.