Welsh Highland Railway 100 Century Gala 23rd - 25th June 2023

Welsh Highland Railway continued with the celebrations of opening the entire railway for its 100 century year. Last year was celebrated our the original company set up to haul trains over Dinas to Rhyd Ddu section and in 2023 celebrated the section between Porthmadog, Beddgelert & Rhyd Ddu section with some of the original trains recreated when it first opened in 1923.
NWNGR Hunslet 2-6-2T Russell & Baldwin Class 10-12-D no.590 (794) both billed to run over the southern route of WHR alongside with Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways stock.
The main gala ran over the weekend of 23rd-25th June with theme days starting on the Friday with a pre-1923 Welsh Highland days with a recreation of the works trains top and tail with two motor rail simplex No.MR297 & MR 2197 on the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, with Russell on heritage trains, Welsh Pony on passenger and slate workings to Hafod y Llyn, double fairlie test train to Rhyd Ddu & rare appearance on WHR for WW1 Simplex Mary Ann.
Saturday was how the old days with many of recreations with Welsh Pony, Russell & 590.
Sunday was an interesting day with 21st century running, Garratts now the main locomotives running over the WHR with double heading & single heading trains with double header mixed train with South African freight attach to the normal train and for the last train to show the good relationship now with F&WHR and WHHR with Russell & Lyd running on a normal WHR stock train to Caernarfon from Porthmadog.
On the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway a two train operation was in operational using a train and locos visiting from Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway with Quarry Large Hunslet Lilla & Hunslet Penrhyn Mainline Blanche with Bagnall Gelert.
Locos in action over the weekend:-
George England no.5 Welsh Pony
Hunslet Quarry Large Lilla - Visiting Welsh Highland Heritage Railway on Friday & Saturday - does not feature
Hunslet Penrhyn Mainline Blanche - Visiting Welsh Highland Heritage Railway on Sunday - does not feature
Double Fairlie no.10 Merddin Ermys
Double Fairlie no.12 David Lloyd George - only ran on Friday as its need on the ffestiniog railway to haul normal services on that line
Lynton & Barnstaple Manning Wardle no.E190 Lyd - ran with Russell on Sunday afternoon - does not feature
Hunslet Russell
Baldwin 10-12-D no.590 (794) - failed before the gala started due to an axlebox issues
Bagnall Gelert
Simplex Mary Ann
Baldwin Moelwyn - used as station pilot & shuttles between Porthmadog & Minffordd - does not feature
Motor Rail simplex no.MR297 - does not feature
Motor Rail Simplex no.MR2197 - visiting from Apedale Narrow Gauge Railway - does not feature
Garratt SAR class no.87
Garratt SAR class no.130
Garratt SAR class no.143 - does not feature.
The weather was mainly a washout with heavy rain over Friday & drizzle over Saturday morning with its clearing up for Sunday with further heavy showers.
Enjoy!

[@mikesanders5433]

Amazing footage, thank you 🙂

[@AndreiTupolev]

What a beautiful spot Nantmor is. Looks like there was a useful spot of rain too to alleviate fears of fire risk

[@ronfisher2-railwaytravelvideos]

There certainly wasn't any fire risk, especially on the Friday when I got absolutely soaked! The main problem though, was keeping the rain off the camera.

[@ronfisher2-railwaytravelvideos]

A washout is a bit of an understatement, especially on the Friday. I got drenched and it was difficult to keep the camera dry. However, as I always say, we have to suffer for our art!
I'm still editing the video footage that I took and, so far, I've only had time to put one short video on my channel. However, the rest will be added in the fullness of time...