Oiling the Wheels

THURSDAY

Inspired by Villain’s blip of the Bala Lake Railway last week, I checked the website and discovered the trains stop running for the winter at the end of next week.  So, with time ticking, we made the trip to Llanuwchllyn station today.

After lunch at the station cafe, we took the round trip to Bala Station running alongside Llyn Tegid. The train was hauled by the locomotive “Alice.”  

Alice was built in Hunslet in 1902 and spent her working years at Dinorwic Quarry until  1960, when she was consigned to be used for spare parts for her sister loco. However, the remaining parts were used to rebuild her as a typical quarry loco -cabless, with timber dumb buffers—and found her way back to the Bala Lake Railway in 2003.

After our train trip we had a nosey around Bala town, with a stop off for coffee and cake.

As well as narrow gauge trains I was treated to the sight of several classic cars driving through town—Bentleys,  Aston Martin, Lotus Cortina, Jensen Interceptor, and  an E-type as well as a handful of fast military aircraft which made a quick appearance over the lake.

Home and now waiting for the Percy Pig Van to arrive later this evening with the Ocado shopping. I have now added it as an extra!

P.S. The train seats were hard and my backside will take some time to recover.

See extra - Alice at Bala Station