Neil
Western Thunderer
In other places I've had past debates about the new Porthmadog - Caernarfon WHR. I've always struggled to fully explain why I think that there's been as much lost as gained by its rebuilding. Now I think I can. For some years I've been looking on youtube for a particular piece of film that i first saw as a young boy. My mum had gone into hospital for a minor operation, and after visiting her one evening my Dad took me and my brother to see a railway themed film show at the Joseph rowntree Theatre in York. I remember some of the other films, there was the ever popular Snow Drift at Bleath Gill, something about Italian Railways and another on the Blue Pullman but the one that really captured my imagination was Railway with a Heart of Gold. A short version of this is/was available at the NRM on one of their video players in the main hall in narrow gauge corner.
, and is well worth fifteen minutes of your time. Try and hold in your mind the ramshackle atmosphere, the sense that time hadn't really moved on in the Fathew Valley, the pace and scale of operations; compare with todays mass market tourist operations and be prepared to weep.