User talk:Michael davies

I probably first became aware of the Festiniog Railway about 1939 when collecting my father's 'Senior Service' cigarette cards. A captivating scene at Tan-y-Bwlch with Bessie Jones and Double Fairlie. The Railway Magazine of Oct/Nov 1946 had a very sad paragraph recording the closure of the railway on August 2nd - my first intimation. On June 22nd 1947 I made my first visit to Portmadoc. In August 1948 I walked the railway from Glan-y-Pwll to Tan-y-Bwlch with a Llechwedd quarryman with whom we were staying. Passage through the Moelwyn Tunnel was memorably wet, Rhosllyn at Dduallt was still occupied by a lone elderly lady,and Coed-y-Bleiddiau cottage was earily vacant with the door ajar and candles on a table. Truly bitten by the FR bug, I was back in October 1948 to look round Boston Lodge, although I didn't 'break in' until 1949! During Whitsun week 1949 (June 4th - 11th)with a school friend we cycled around most of the narrow gauge railways in Wales, again visiting Boston Lodge, although Robert Evans had refused permission to inspect the premises. Having no desire for a brush with the Merioneth County Constabulary my friend stood guard whilst I bunked the place! In July 1949 I read Boyd's 'Narrow Gauge Rails to Portmadoc'and discovered he lived only a mile or so from my home. In October that year he revealed that he was negotiating to take control of the Company, or at least he had a wealthy backer who was prepared to take the risk. I was asked whether I would spend my 1950 Easter holidays helping to prepare for a resumption of passenger services that summer. Needless to say, the scheme foundered, but I like to think that I was perhaps the first person to be asked to help restore a railway voluntarily. I continued to visit and walk the line regularly during the next four years, although the section below Tan-y-Bwlch was really quite impenetrable after March 1950. In late summer 1954 I visited the railway, having read that Alan Pegler had gained control of the Company, and found signs of movement where there had been none during the whole time I had known the line. On a very wet October 23rd I found Allan Garraway and Len Heath Humphrys working the Simplex around Boston Lodge and joined in the fun. Shortly afterwards we were joined by Rob Smallman who now for over fifty years has worked in many capacities for the good of the FR. My next visit was the occasion of the Special train to commemorate Robert Evans's 60 years service to the railway, followed by a presentation by Alan Pegler and his fellow directors at the Queens Hotel.I joined the embrionic FRSocy on this date and still have my Membership Card no.A019. I have remained a member since that day, converting to Life Membership very many years ago. From November 1954 until reopening in July 1955 I worked on the railway every month, or often twice a month, helped by Ian Smart who provided the much needed transport. The journey took nearly three hours, but by train and bus that time could be doubled! In January 1955 I took charge of the sale of redundant ticket stocks to collectors, and raised several hundred pounds over the next five years,the company investing me with the title of Records & Archives Officer prior to Michael Seymour being appointed official archivist a year or so later.In common with a few other early FR volunteers the directors presented me with a company tie and First Class Free Pass, and whilst the former is now too worn for further use, I enjoy presenting the Pass for inspection when travelling. Allan Garraway then asked me to make a full inventory of the FR wagon stock, and this I did during 1955/6, even making forays into the quarries at Blaenau in search of any missing FR wagons. In Manchester we formed the Lancashire & Cheshire Group of the FRS in June 1956 and I sat on the Committee for some years and continued to join occasional week end working parties into the 1960s. In 1970 I visited Tonbridge at the invitation of Arthur Iggulden, Col Stephens Audit Accountant, and we became good friends until his death in 1979. In 1977 I spent some time in the Harbour Station muniment room researching the Col Stephens connection with the FR, and this enabled me to make a contribution to the 'Col Stephens' week end course at Plas Tan-y-Bwlch in 1991. In 2007 I collaborated with Vic Mitchell on a Middleton Press title 'Festiniog 1946-55 The Pioneers' Stories' where I set out my own memories of over fifty years work on the FR. Since 1997 I have been Treasurer to the WHR Heritage Group and have made many track bed inspection walks from Dinas Junction to Portmadoc. A.Michael Davies, July 10th 2007

In 2007 I wrote of my early F.R. experiences, and as June 2009 is the 60th anniversary of my first walk along the WHR through the Aberglaslyn Pass it is perhaps appropriate to write of my WHR memories from those far off days. My first sight of the WHR was at Pont Croesor on June 22nd 1947 when passing along the road on a day trip by car from our holiday house at Morfa Nefyn to Barmouth. The rails were still in situ but the excitement of the young teenager were not shared by the other occupants and I had to wait until 1948 to examine the track bed on my own. In October of that year a school friend joined me on a short cycling holiday and we stayed at Snowdon Ranger Y.H. for two nights. The railway was only six or seven years gone and the track bed was in very good order at the varios locations inspected between Porthmadog and Waun Fawr. The following summer we had a longer cycling holiday and stayed at Snowdon Ranger three nights. The weather was perfect and after a long day walking the trackbed from Beddgelert to Nantmor, climbing Cnicht, and returning via Croesor Junction, we walked to Rhyd Ddu in the evening, out on the railway, and back by an almost traffic free road.I remember being greatly impressed by the Glanyrafon viaduct.Well and truly bitten by the WHR bug, I was back in February 1950 to inspect Beddgelert station, then shorn of its buildings, and take two friends down through the Aberglaslyn Tunnels. We stayed again at Snowdon Ranger then presided over by the friendly warden, Joe Gianelli, and on our last day returned to Caernarfon and Bangor by WHR trackbed, bus and train. A wartime Bedford of Whiteway Motors took us to WaunFawr where we followed the railway to Tryfan Junction, my first view of this fascinating spot. I am a little hazy about our next move but recollect travelling on an Express Motors bus to Rhostryfan where we heard not a word of English. Walking up to Bryngwyn was the next objective where we marvelled at the long incline to Drumhead. Later that afternoon we booked tickets to Bangor at Dinas (Caernarvon) as Dinas Junction had become, my only journey from there before closure in June 1951. By July 1950 I had walked every yard of the WHR including a rather frightning crossing of the Afon Nanmor on the girders, the timbers having completely disappeared. The water below was very deep, and then to complete my difficulties, I was confronted by a very large bull on the track bed beyond. My greatest wish in those days was to see the F.R. reopened and I avidly followed James Boyd's attempts in 1949/50 as I had easy access to him as a near neighbour. Any thought of a revival of the WHR was beyond comprehension, as after all the track had long gone, and railways that had been lifted were in those days considered gone forever. In October 1954 I became involved in the F.R. revival and our only incursion into WHR territory was early one morning in January 1955 when we took all of use to the F.R. from the derelict Simplex Tractor which had been abandoned at Portmadoc New after the lifting of the track. Later Alan Garraway and others salvaged the remaining rails from below the bridge at Pitt's Head, but any talk of reviving the WHR was frowned upon, quite rightly, by AGWG who had more than enough to do reviving the F.R. I followed the early attempts by the WHR Society to revive the railway from 1961, but never joined them as the F.R. was my main interest, and little or nothing seemed to be achieved by them in those early days. What now seems almost a life time later I have become a Life Member of the much more successful WHR Society of 1993 and in 1997 we founded the Welsh Highland Railway Heritage Group of which I became Founder Member and Treasurer. My colleagues and I made several trackbed inspections on foot from Dinas to Porthmadog in 1997/8 to record all features worthy of conservation, and in 2003 I joined a track working party for the first time in nearly forty years. I shall always remember my 65th birthday, June 30th 1999, for on that day John Prescott signed the WHR Order and the way was clear to reconstruct from Dinas to Porthmadog, something that I had dreamed of for more than fifty years. Now ten years later I can enjoy a day out by train and bus from Chester to the heart of Snowdonia and join a WHR train through the glories of Aberglaslyn or the fearful climb out of Beddgelert. That magnificent stretch of the old NWNGR section from Rhyd Ddu to Snowdon Ranger is perhaps my favourite, bringing back memories of those walks sixty years and more ago, and my only regret is that so many of my friends of those years, many of whom strove to save the WHR are no longer able to join me. Let us hope they are looking down on us in Eryri where we have such a wonderful railway. Michael Davies June 27th 2009.

Iggulden

Michael, I was also on that workparty dismantling the old Waunfawr station building. Such a shame that much of the stone disappeared.

I want to ask a favour - do you have contact details for either of Arthur Iggulden's sons ? I have a non-railway matter which I'd like to ask them about.

thanks a lot

Keith Holland (talk) 21:03, 15 November 2012 (UTC)Keith Holland