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We now only have one operational narrow gauge layout in this section of the club, (‘Upton Dale’ 009 has now been sold), ‘Dingle’ 00n3 and one under construction, 'Castlefinn' 00n3. Both are OOn3 or 4n12 scale/gauge but we hope they will have completely different characters. Dingle is an end to end layout, Castlefin will be a 'tailchaser'.
There are pictures of my visit to Cultra in Northern Ireland just 7 miles or so South east of Belfast and a Tralee and Dingle history or T&D website and also a page from which historic maps from 1906, of the line can be downloaded.
If you are interested in seeing us we will be
exhibiting at;
'Dingle' Huddersfield Show - 25th / 26th October 2008
'Dingle' Narrow Gauge North - 14th / 15th March 2009
'Dingle' Donegal Heritage Centre - May 2009 (Pictures here {ours} )
'Dingle' York - 3rd / 4th / 5th April 2010
We appeared in Railway Modeller in December 2002, January and February 2003's issues. There was also an article on the building of No. 5T in November's Issue (2003)
Previous to that, we appeared in Railway Modeller in November 1993 and February 1994 with Upton Dale. The 'original' Upon Dale appeared in Model Railway Constructor in the 1980's.
If you are a computer screen modeller
and would like to see 'Dingle' and a whole host of other narrow gauge
layouts at exhibition why not click
Exhibition
Welsh Highland Railway (Caernarfon)/Ffestiniog Railway.
Above left; 'Millennium' having run round at Rhyd Ddu, 10th July 2005. Middle; The journey down having just left Rhyd Ddu. Right; Crossing trains at Waenfawr.
Below left; Moelwyn at Tan-y-Bwlch, late afternoon on 5th May 2004, the FR 'Interactive' weekend. Centre; Moelwyn with carriage No.10. Right; Taliesin about to depart with the evening slate train.
Above left; Taken last Summer (2004), the remains of the 4ft gauge Padarn railway loco 'Velinheli' in a shed at the Welsh Slate Museum. Both the tanks and chimney remain rusting in an open shed, though at least under cover. There may be other bits there too but the area is cordoned off and difficult to check. Also visible is what looks to be the reversing lever/handle. Above right; The superlative view from the train as it crosses the cob. Apart from the quarry which mars the scene slightly, this must be one of the finest views from a train anywhere and a fitting end to an excellent journey.
Click below for some more of our
favoured links.
On my travels - this is where many of the pictures have gone (such as the WHR views and historic opening)
The all new Ffestiniog Railway site ... There is also a taster video - it will maximise to full screen and is worth watching!
Ffestiniog Railway Society webpage
Ffestiniog Facebook page for up to date stories about the railway
...and the new Welsh Highland Railway site On the left, a taster video for this too - it will maximise to full screen and again, is worth watching! In the middle a video I took of scenery on the new, lower section of line, June 2010 and on the right 'festshopman's' video of the first passenger train into harbour station from Caernarfon. I am there but you will be hard pressed to spot me!
New Welsh Highland Society webpage
Ben Fisher's Welsh Highland old site - now moved to the FR/WHR servers and to be regularly updated
An unofficial WHR site which contains alternative material about the rebuild by Barrie Hughes.
The official changelog of the Welsh Highland Railway (Portmadoc) for progress at the other end!
For more details of the Pont Croesor extension.
Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway
Pictures of several UK narrow gauge railways from the Bluebell Railway archive FR, Talyllyn, Vale of Rheidol, Ravenglass, Penrhyn & Dinorwic Qy etc
IOM Railway from the Bluebell Railway archive
Lynton and Barnstaple Railway site - newly updated
Bord na mona - a site showing the location and some details of the various lines.
Cavan and Leitrim - Dromod Station - restoration project and the old version
Cavan and Letrim colour photos
County Donegal Heritage Centre - Donegal Town station
Need a reference for Irish Narrow Gauge Railways and somewhere to download a ‘true’ Gaelic font? As well as a link back to us!
The Tralee and Dingle Railway. An excellent site - fairly regularly updated
An excellent historical site and guide to the rest of the Dingle peninsula
Tralee & Dingle railwayana (not a lot left!) and brief history
Above left; Video from Youtube of the line Past/Present with sections of film I believe to be from Patrick Whitehouse's 'Fair Days Only', taken in the 1950's. Centre; a short section of video coming down by bus from Gleanangalt. As the road runs parallel to the railway for this stretch, you could easily imagine it as looking out of the carriage on a clear day! Right; the short section from Michael Palin's Great Railway Journeys which shows the Tralee Blennerville Line as restored. It also shows 5T in steam and pulling a couple of coaches. Let's hope that the money can be found for this to happen again sooner rather than later.
West Clare Line for opening times (with map) and incredible news of possible forthcoming developments of the line. Also many pictures of the old line on the Clare County library site
Two video clips from a comedy film featuring the West Clare Railway. The clips are from "A Minute's Wait," one of three short stories that made up the 1950's John Ford theatrical release called "The Rising of the Moon."
News from Irish Times about West Clare
Irish Railway Station Index - has most stations, past and present
Photo of the Tralee and Dingle today (well 2007 when the railway was running!)
Tralee Times pictures of T&D Rly
From the Bluebell Railway archive - I have tried to break the collections down with specific interest;
Schull & Skibbereen (3), West Clare (13), Cavan & Leitrim (11)
Londonderry & Lough Swilly (32), CDR (2)
Tralee & Dingle (49)
CDR (inc Castlefin) (44)
CDR (13)
CDR (35)
Cavan & Leitrim (19)
West Clare (5), Cavan & Leitrim (2)
The Cairngorm mountain railway - a video of the downwards journey. If you want to go to the summit of Cairngorm you have to walk up, not use the funicular railway. If you go up by rail you are not allowed out of the cafe which is a few hundred feet short of the summit. You can after walking up get the train down, which is cheaper and you can bag your first Munro!
Not narrow-gauge stuff but interesting / useful nevertheless!
My own gallery pictures
Rare or out of print books needed?
The North Wales Coast Railway website.
My own collection of non railway pictures - well OK so there are quite a few railway pictures actually but ...
Click below to visit another page
OO Section N Gauge Section Railtours
Like the images below? Even better as a screen saver! Click here for more details.
They are designed to run with Mark
Goodspeed's Railway Screen Saver which is fully animated 'Valve gear
'n' all'. The screen saver must be registered as only a fraction of
the available goodies and functionality is available at the web-site: the
rest is on the associated eGroup.
The WHR(C) trains are actually part of a much wider virtual model NG
railway Mark Speed is developing, within the screen saver. He hopes
to eventually cover all the major UK narrow gauge railways in it.
There are still a couple of major omissions, but he's getting there.
There is no reason for you to be restricted to the WHR(C). Consider:
NWNGR
WHR (1923)
GJ&PJR
Ffestiniog Railway (1880s and 1920s)
Vale of Rheidol
Lynton and Barnstaple
Leek and Manifold
Ashover
Campbeltown and Macrihanish
Welshpool and Llanfair
War Dept.
Quarry Locos
All the above railways are represented within the Railway 32 eGroup, plus
an unbelievably large quantity of SG stuff by other group members.
Click above for more details.
Please feel free to contact us for more details - CLICK HERE