Running – Moel Rhos

Visit to the Hoffnant Valley

Last weekend I took the coal-fired Ragleth on its first “away” fixture, a visit to the Hoffnant Valley Railway. This picturesque line has two loops, both of which have relatively fierce gradients.

Since I got my coal-fired DJB Ragleth back in October I haven’t (for various boring reasons) had a chance to fire it again until last weekend. But I had two very satisfying and successful runs (one with the added pressure of some good friends watching me!)

A Spot of Darjeeling on the Moel Rhos

Visits from locomotives have been sadly rare in the past year, but this week we were privileged to have a (Roundhouse) Darjeeling and Himalayan Railway Class B on the line.

Lights

A couple of weeks back I posted a photo from a late night steam running session which took place back in May 2020. The top photo on this post is taken half an hour later the same evening. By this point it was pretty dark, and you can see to good effect the illumination provided by the light mounted above the smoke box.

Late night steam

I was pleased with the effect on this photo which was taken during an evening running session in May 2020 at around 9.15pm. The low light forced my phone camera to slow the shutter, and a panned round with the loco to keep it in focus while the background blurred.

2023 in garden railway visits…

Looking back over the garden railway year, one particular pleasure has been our South West Wales 16mm Association Area group resuming a substantial programme of garden railway visits after lockdown shifted us online in 2020, and while we had some good meetings in 2021/22 it was only this year we got back to monthly (sometimes even twice monthly) gatherings in each others’ gardens.

Boxing Day 2022

No trains running on the Moel Rhos today, unfortunately. But they were, exactly one year ago, last Boxing Day.

Here’s an album of photos from Boxing Day 2022.

Christmas Eve 2020

Merry Christmas everyone! Dipping into our virtual meet-ups from 2020/21 again, here’s a set of images from Christmas Eve 2020.

Looking back at lockdown virtual meet-ups

Back in 2020 lockdown came just in time to disrupt our (the South West Wales 16mm Area Group) programme of monthly meet-ups. But with everybody stuck at home – and in their gardens – what else was there to do but work and play trains? Our solution was to keep going with the monthly meet-ups, but to do them online…

Gone Visitin’

Last month, stock from Moel Rhos (the Millie and half a dozen small wagons) paid its first visit to another private railway. The Brockhampton & Umbridge Railway is a superbly detailed railway in a beautiful setting, populated by some incredibly fine modelled stock. Continue reading Gone Visitin’

Category: Running