It's all over now. What an intense three days! (Preceeded by three days on some of the other Welsh NG lines.) Great event which I enjoyed enourmously.
My thanks for the tips offered in advance which really helped my experience. I stayed in Llanwnda and walked to Dinas on the L&NWR cycle-track. Apart from Friday when the weather was not that great so I drove to Caenarfon.
Some lovely motive power combinations and heritage trains which I made full use of. Did the full run also a couple of times using a few service trains. [Did a couple of runs on the FR on Thursday.] And yes, the Guards were busy with doors on the heritage stock
Very nice having Lyn and greatly admired. I'm no expert but something didn't sound right. If that's the case I hope it gets sorted. The whistle on the other hand puts the FR locos whistles to shame!
I didn't find a lot at Dinas to see; that surprised me. I attended the Friday night talk which I found very interning. But poorly attended. I'll guess because it was Friday (or everyone was riding the evening trains).
I have to note that in comparison to other gala I have attended this year that the catering falls well short of what other railways lay on for such big events. Considering the heritage shuttle timetable I would personally have expected pop-up catering at some or all of the cross-over stations. I don't personally think this is a big ask considering the nature of the event.
However, any catering ommissions were fully made up for and exceeded by excellent fortune to get to drive Hugh Napier. This was unexpected and I couldn't believe that I could just turn up, climb aboard and from the shed back to the platform be given the responsibility to drive. It almost exceeded my experience of being on the footplate of Winifred (1885) on Bala Lake a few days earlier for the whole 4 mile journey
Again, thanks for the pre-event tips and thanks you to the volunteers and staff for a great three days.
PS: Great story involving the Sunday 1415 Porth to Caenarfon suddenly needing a relief driver at Rhyd Ddu. Well that will have to await another time to tell in the Trip Report thread.
PPS: Standing on the platform at Caenarfon watching the last train on Sunday ECS pulling out heading to Dinas... Let's just say emotions were running high...