The "small branch of the Ffestiniog" at Porthmadog is in fact the Welsh Highland Railway running all the way up to Caernarfon, and twice the length of the Ffestiniog. Both are very worthy of a visit and you need to allow a day for each; you can not do both in the same day.
And the 'Welsh Highland Railway' at Porthmadog (13:45) is actually the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway (www.whr.co.uk) which is administratively separate from, but with physical connection to, the Welsh Highland Railway that runs to Caernafon (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Highland_Heritage_Railway)
Fantastic video. The Cambrian Coast line is always a nice route to travel on and the many narrow gauge lines are also great. Something I would recommend is to walk along the Barmouth Bridge, doesn't cost much and takes a decent amount of time.
@@dodge2322 There is a small toll booth at the Barmouth end and you have to "pay the troll', but I don't think it's enforced too much. Although, I think it's £1 you should pay.
@@dodge2322 *Not sure but most Welsh Councils WC's Charging 30p for taking a **-piss-** WE WE and attendants to make sure you pay & NO CHANGE GIVEN. On the Train all Free today - so make sure you get the real deal and **-piss-** wee on the track.*
Beautiful scenery. Cambrian passengers certainly got a better deal with 158s than West Highlanders did with the 156s! It's a tribute to the fleet engineers in the noughties that they were able to squeeze new ERTMS cab kit into the 158s. I like the flat crossing at Porthmadog; the only other one on Network Rail is at Newark. As the WHR pre-dated the Cambrian, NR was legally-bound to reinstate it.
Done the whole route one of the more scenic rail routes 158s seem perfect for the route as well but I wonder if other units sneaked on before ETMRS Im sure I saw a 153 pass when I stayed at Hafan Y Mor once around 2005 I think.
Class 158s the best rolling stock the Cambrian ever had. British Rail did well. And thanks to EU money the track and signalling upgrades mean record fast times between Aberystwyth and Shrewsbury. The avalanche shelter marks the spot where a Cambrian loco was driven off the track and fell to the beach, killing the crew 😕
the reason they have 158s is because any other trains (like 175) is too heavy to go over barmouth bridge, or the lower sprinters (153 etc) are too week and not powerful enough to pull along
@@cymruconnections4776 Regional Railways did a deal with the Welsh Office/ Assembly in the 1990s which wanted to see a big cut in journey time to Aberystwyth. To do that involved increasing linespeed over some stretches to over 75mph, and for the timetable to work each westbound train had to reach Talerddig loop within (IIRC) 60min from Sutton Bridge then cross each eastbound train. Only 158s had the grunt and the light axle loading to achieve this. Given the Cambrian's gradients, I reckon RR would have specced 159s if they could, as Network SouthEast did for Waterloo-Exeter, but the money didn't stretch.
Indeed so; curvature, structures, level crossings and the Inumber of station stops restrict speed on the whole coast branch compared to the Cambrian main.
