GELERT (19/09/09)

                                Arose at dawn to drizzle, low cloud and cold. Took a wander into the village for milk and a paper. Had a look at the map, decided to give Snowden a miss and concentrate on the train.
       These locomotives were built fifty miles from here, this apparently being the last. Eight years my junior. Now there's a cheering thought!
       Shipped to South Africa and re imported to work back within a shovel full of coals throw of where it was manufactured, I like the symmetry.
      Four cylinders each driving three wheels. The tender is split water over the front set of wheels and coal over the rear. For the real anoraks out there these locomotives are narrow gauge Beyer-Garrett 6-0-6s. They were built in standard gauge as a heavy freight locomotive for British railways but none were preserved.
       Here they have two.
                     My driver for the day. Can't ever remember British Rail drivers being so bonny. If a little camera shy.
  GELLERTS GRAVE........A big thing in these parts, understandable, not a lot happens. How much of this is myth, how much Victorian melodrama and how much twentieth century capitalism you must decide. I hope a little of the truth as it is a lovely but sad story.
         BEDDGELERT.......strikes a chord in me, sentimentalist that I am. DD in Welsh is pronounced TH as is then. So should you want to go there then you ask for a ticket to Bethgelert. That's an easy one! Probably why it's a popular destination.
I'm going to finish this post here as the views from the train, were not spectacular, (rain for the most part). With luck and a following wind I hope to incorporate them with some scenes from tomorrow.