Packing For Porthmadog

We still have the best part of a fortnight to go but today the plan is to break down Minffordd  and get it all packed away ready for the trip to the show in Porthmadog.

Over the weekend we did a last bit of test running to check a few of the adjustments which have been made since Glasgow, one of which was an overdue reset of the decoder on the green 24 to cure its tendency to unpredictable rates of acceleration, which made attempting to shunt wagons into the yard a challenge.

The show, at Y Ganolfan, just across the harbour from the FR station, looks like it will be a terrific event.  Link here.

The organisers look to have pulled together a remarkable collection of layouts of locations along the FR, or ones which have been inspired by it.

There's a few I'm particularly looking forward to seeing, and I hope the owners won't mind that I've lifted some photos from their social media.

Tan y Bwlch by Nigel Smith has captured the feel of everyone's favourite FR station perfectly.

In a larger scale, Rhiw Goch, from James and Peter Hoyle, is another exquisitely faithful representation of a real life location on the line.

And Charles Insely's Bangor looks like it oozes atmosphere, and I've been watching his Bachmann Fairlie kit bashes with interest as he documented the project, so it will be fascinating to see them close up.

Proceeds from the show will be split between the fundraising appeals to overhaul Blanche and to build a replica of the Spooner bogie ballast wagon, so that's an extra incentive to come along to the show if you are able to.

Painting The First Bridge

Himself has been lured away again for a spell of 12 inches to the foot modelling, which partly explains why in recent days this blog has been filled with waffle rather than posts about actual progress.

The cause this time has been the repair and repainting of Tan y Bwlch footbridge.

(Some might say the real footbridge but we'd never stray into controversies like that on here, oh no, not us....)

It's one of the few remaining monuments from a frantic period of development on the FR when function mattered far more than form.

Form is rather expensive, though, and there weren't so many people with deep pockets or agencies with funds to distribute in the late '60s and early '70s.

That said, it is interesting to note that the construction of this bridge - which was felt to be necessary when a more formal island platform was created after the reopening to Dduallt - did receive some corporate sponsorship from, of all people, the owners of the John Player tobacco brand.

That may seem hard to imagine to some people these days.

Pedants may take issue with me calling it the first bridge in the title, because properly speaking it was the second footbridge on the site, but it is the first, and the only one, to allow access to the platform.

(Steady now....)

As a child of the '70s It is also the only way I have ever known Tan y Bwlch station.

Incidentally, the person in the foreground holding the drill - in what could be construed as a mildly threatening manner - is none other than my mother.

No wonder Himself always does as he's told!