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Brecon Mountain Railway
The Brecon Mountain Railway (Welsh: ''Rheilffordd Mynydd Brycheiniog'') is a narrow gauge tourist railway on the south side of the Brecon Beacons. It climbs northwards from Pant along the full length of the Pontsticill Reservoir (also called 'Taf Fechan' reservoir by Welsh Water) and continues past the adjoining Pentwyn Reservoir to Torpantau railway station. The railway's starting point at Pant is located north of the town centre of Merthyr Tydfil, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, South-East Wales. Route description The line runs along part of the trackbed of the northern section of the former Brecon and Merthyr Railway from Pant to a new station at Torpantau, via Pontsticill and Dolygaer, a total of about . This takes the BMR just short of the southern entrance to the 667 yd (610 m) long Torpantau tunnel, the highest railway tunnel in Great Britain, which carried the original line through the hills along the side of Glyn Collwn to Brecon or to Moat Lane or Hereford via ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brecon Mountain Railway Train
Brecon (; cy, Aberhonddu; ), archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town in Powys, mid Wales. In 1841, it had a population of 5,701. The population in 2001 was 7,901, increasing to 8,250 at the 2011 census. Historically it was the county town of Brecknockshire (Breconshire); although its role as such was eclipsed with the formation of the County of Powys, it remains an important local centre. Brecon is the third-largest town in Powys, after Newtown and Ystradgynlais. It lies north of the Brecon Beacons mountain range, but is just within the Brecon Beacons National Park. History Early history The Welsh name, Aberhonddu, means "mouth of the Honddu". It is derived from the River Honddu, which meets the River Usk near the town centre, a short distance away from the River Tarell which enters the Usk a few hundred metres upstream. After the Dark Ages the original Welsh name of the kingdom in whose territory Brecon stands was (in modern orthography) "Brycheiniog", whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Torpantau
Torpantau railway station is a station in the Welsh county of Brecknockshire (now in Powys), and the northern terminus of the narrow gauge Brecon Mountain Railway. It had previously been a station on the standard gauge line from Merthyr to Brecon, and was the highest station on the Brecon and Merthyr Railway. The standard gauge and narrow gauge stations are in the same broad location, but on different specific sites, on opposite sides of the Torpantau to Abercynafon road. History The station was opened at the end of 1862 by the Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway. Torpantau is a remote location, though a few passengers may have worked on the local dams, or fished there for leisure. The location was most significant in operational terms for watering engines and tying down brakes before a descent. In 1916 a train passed a signal at danger near the station causing a collision that killed two people. The line and the station first became part of the Great Western ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Two Foot Gauge Railways In South Africa
In the early 1900s, narrow-gauge railway lines started playing a significant role in South Africa. They facilitated the transport of various agricultural and mineral produce from locations hardly accessible by road. They therefore enabled many communities to become prosperous. These lines featured the largest and most powerful locomotives ever in existence on two-foot-gauge railways worldwide. All two-foot railways were operated isolated from each other. However, this did not prevent standardization and interchangeability of rolling stock and locomotives. The larger railway lines operated their own workshops performing minor to major maintenance and/or repairs. For the purpose of major overhauls and interchangeability, rolling stock could be transported piggyback on Cape gauge rolling stock by means of a special access ramp on the break of gauge at Cape gauge junctions available on most of the two-foot lines. Their decline started in the 1980s, the last commercial line cease ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baldwin Locomotive Works
The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades the world's largest producer of steam locomotives, but struggled to compete as demand switched to diesel locomotives. Baldwin produced the last of its 70,000-plus locomotives in 1951, before merging with the Lima-Hamilton Corporation on September 11, 1951, to form the Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corporation. The company has no relation to the E.M. Baldwin and Sons of New South Wales, Australia, a builder of small diesel locomotives for sugar cane railroads. History: 19th century Beginning The Baldwin Locomotive Works had a humble beginning. Matthias W. Baldwin, the founder, was a jeweler and whitesmith, who, in 1825, formed a partnership with machinist David H. Mason, and engaged in the manufacture of bookbinders' tools and cylinders fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dolygaer Railway Station
Dolygaer railway station (alternatively, Dol-y-gaer railway station) was a station serving the hamlet of Dol-y-gaer and the area adjacent to Pen-twyn Reservoir (now incorporated into the Pontsticill Reservoir) in Powys, Wales. History The station was opened on 19 March 1863 when the Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway commenced operations between and . In 1866 the service through the station was 3 trains in each direction on weekdays only. The line through Dolygaer station was single track, without passing facilities, and there was one platform with a single storey building. The station was staffed until 1932. The line and station was closed to passengers on 31 December 1962 and to goods on 4 May 1964. Dolygaer became a temporary terminus on the Brecon Mountain Railway (BMR) when the re-opened line was extended in 1995 to a new site south of the original station, with permanent way subsequently extended (by 2000) through the original station site also. This arrange ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pontsticill Railway Station
Pontsticill railway station (historically Pontsticill Junction railway station) is an intermediate station on the Brecon Mountain Railway at Pontsticill, in the historic Welsh county of Brecknockshire, now Merthyr Tydfil County Borough. The station was previously the junction at which the Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Railway line from Torpantau in the North split to serve the Brecon & Merthyr Railway main line and the Merthyr Tydfil branch. Today it is no longer a junction. The station opened in 1863. It was closed for 17 years from January 1963 to June 1980. History Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway The Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway obtained an Act of Parliament on 1 August 1859 to construct a line between Talybont and Pant. Train services between Brecon and Pant officially began on 23 April 1863 but two trains per day ran from 19 March 1863. This line, running south from Pontsticill to Pant, is the route still operated by the Brecon Mountain Railway. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Light Railway Order
The Light Railways Act 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c.48) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. History Before the Act each new railway line built in the country required a specific Act of Parliament to be obtained by the company that wished to construct it, which greatly added to the cost and time it took to construct new railways. The economic downturn of the 1880s had hit agriculture and rural communities in the United Kingdom especially hard and the government wished to facilitate the construction of railways in rural areas, especially to facilitate the transport of goods. The 1896 Act defined a class of railways which did not require specific legislation to construct – companies could simply plan a line under the auspices of the new Act, and, having obtained a light railway order, build and operate it. By reducing the legal costs and allowing new railways to be built quickly the government hoped to encourage companies to build the new ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Llanberis Lake Railway
The Llanberis Lake Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Llyn Padarn) is a narrow gauge heritage railway that runs for along the northern shore of Llyn Padarn in north Wales in the Snowdonia National Park. The starting point is the village of Llanberis at the eastern end of the lake (), with the western terminus at Pen Llyn in the Padarn Country Park (). The return journey takes around 60 minutes. History Early proposals The Llanberis Lake Railway runs along part of the trackbed of the defunct Padarn Railway, a gauge line which connected the quarry with Y Felinheli (Port Dinorwic) on the Menai Strait. The Padarn Railway closed in October 1961 and was lifted between 16 May 1962 and February 1963. Following the closure of the Padarn Railway, various plans were made to open a gauge tourist railway on the trackbed. The first serious attempt was made by G. Ward, a local resident, who proposed a railway that would circle Llyn Padarn using the trackbeds of the British Rail Llanberis b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gilfach Ddu
Gilfach Ddu (also known as the Dinorwic Slate Quarry Workshops) are a series of well preserved Grade I listed industrial buildings built to serve the Dinorwic slate quarry near Llanberis in Caernarfonshire, North Wales. The workshops are a complex of repair and maintenance buildings, that were built in 1870 to build and maintain the machinery used in the quarry. The complex includes saw sheds, patternmaking shops, a foundry with copula, blacksmiths shops, fitting shops, stores, engine sheds, a canteen, the chief engineers house, a hand operated crane and two waterwheels which provided the site with its power. Since 1972 the buildings have housed the National Slate Museum. History Quarrying started at Dinorwic around 1700, under the ownership of the Assheton-Smith family. In 1787 however, the area was leased to a group of English industrialists, who established the current Dinorwic quarry, building the first incline of the quarry in 1790. Transporting slate from Dinorwic wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railfan
A railfan, rail buff or train buff (American English), railway enthusiast, railway buff or trainspotter ( Australian/British English), or ferroequinologist is a person who is recreationally interested in trains and rail transport systems. Railfans often combine their interest with other hobbies, especially photography and videography, radio scanning, railway modelling, studying railroad history and participating in railway station and rolling stock preservation efforts. There are many magazines and websites dedicated to railfanning and railway enthusiasts, including '' Trains'', '' Railfan & Railroad'', ''The Railway Magazine'', ''Locomotive Magazine'', and ''Railway Gazette International''. Other names In the United Kingdom, rail enthusiasts are often called trainspotters or anoraks. The term ''gricer'' has been used in the UK since at least 1969 and is said to have been current in 1938 amongst members of the Manchester Locomotive Society, according to the ''Oxford Engli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Little Trains Of Wales
The Great Little Trains of Wales ( Welsh: ''Trenau Bach Arbennig Cymru'') is the name of a joint marketing scheme formed in 1970 to promote some of the narrow gauge railways of Wales and encourage visitors to Wales. As well as marketing the railways, the scheme allows visitors to purchase a discount card, allowing reduced rates on all the lines. As of 2021, there are twelve railways in the scheme. See also * Britain's Great Little Railways * Heritage Railway Association * British narrow gauge railways There were more than a thousand British narrow-gauge railways ranging from large, historically significant common carriers to small, short-lived industrial railways. Many notable events in British railway history happened on narrow-gauge railwa ... References External linksGreat Little Trains of Wales website {{Tourism in Wales Marketing boards Tourist attractions in Wales ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brecon Beacons National Park
The Brecon Beacons National Park ( cy, Parc Cenedlaethol Bannau Brycheiniog) is one of three national parks in Wales, and is centred on the Brecon Beacons range of hills in southern Wales. It includes the Black Mountain ( cy, Y Mynydd Du) in the west, Fforest Fawr (translates as 'great forest') and the Brecon Beacons in the centre and the Black Mountains ( cy, Y Mynydd Du or Mynyddoedd Duon) in the east. Description The Brecon Beacons National Park was established in 1957, the last of the three Welsh parks designated after Snowdonia in 1951 and the Pembrokeshire Coast in 1952. It stretches from Llandeilo in the west to Hay-on-Wye in the northeast and Pontypool in the southeast, covering and encompassing four main regions – the Black Mountain in the west, reaching 802 metres (2631 feet) at Fan Brycheiniog, Fforest Fawr and the Brecon Beacons in the centre, including the highest summit in the park and in South Wales at Pen y Fan 886 metres (2,907 feet) and the confu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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