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Talyllyn Railway - Bryn Elgwys Quarry - Abandoned tramways & inclines
Рет қаралды 8,639
Күн бұрынTalyllyn Railway - Bryn Elgwys Quarry - Abandoned tramways & inclines
@TalyllynRailway1865
In my last video in Wales, I take an explore of the origins of the Talyllyn narrow quage railway. The world's oldest preserved railway dates back to the 1860s, but owes it's existence to the slate quarrying industry in the hills above Tywyn.
The Bryn Eglwys quarry now sits above Abergynolwyn, which housed the workers from the quarry. In todays video I start in the Nant Gwernol Gorge, which powers its way beneath the current day terminus of th railway. But from here we investigate the tramways and disused inclines that connected the railway to the quarry and industry.
We follow the blue quarrymens path around the site, in which is a fantastic signposted route, climbing high into the old workings - but confusing quiet in terms of other walkers.
Our first incline is the Alltwyllt incline, which you can walk up and still features the winding drum house at the top, along with some remains of old stables. From here we enjoy a flat stretch on the former horse drawn Galltymoelfre tramway. After this is where the real climbing starts on our walk.
We see the bottom of the former Cantrybedd incline that went up to the lower mill. All now demolished.
Or blue route takes us around the edge of the quarry but we meet up again with another incline by the bridge at the top of the Beudynewydd incline.
The climbing doesnt stop here as we pass trough ruins of the main part of the slate mine and climb the Boundary and Short inclines. Cwm Cwm incline starts our descent back towards our starting point.
Not forgetting the original incline down to the town of Abergwynolwyn, which fetched supplies in and out of the town to the quarry and tramway. .
The Bryn Eglwys quarry opened in 1847 and closed in 1946. More than 300 men worked at the site, making it the principal employer in the area. Two veins of slate, known as the Broad Vein and the Narrow Vein, were worked. The geology continues eastwards towards Corris and Dinas Mawddwy, and westwards towards Tywyn. It was one of many quarries that worked these veins.
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@Irishmanexplores 23 күн бұрын
brilliant video pal. the workings underground are mad too
@neelix139 14 күн бұрын
Greetings to the wobbly runner my name is Kev. I live in Melbourne Australia, and you were saying that the talyllyn railway was the first. The second was the Ffestiniog And the third Railway in the world was the Puffingbilly Railway in Melbourne Australia. I worked on the Railway as a volunteer for approximately eight years so it is worth a visit. Might be a bit far for you but it’s worth a visit and can tell you this.
@WobblyRunner 13 күн бұрын
Hi Kev, great to hear from you. Interesting info. If I ever make in down under I will keep that in mind. As it happens, one of the things on my all time bucket list is the go and watch the motorcycle racing at Philip Island.
@ghostontheline Ай бұрын
Great video, I stayed in Abergynolwyn during a very wet early February this year. I walked from the main station around to Nant Gwernol via the incline. Due to subsidence I was unable to continue down to the main road and had to climb up again and return via the forest track. There was a lot of flooding, it was a good thing that I had decided to put on a pair of good wellies. No slipping or wet feet. 😊
@geoffward7786 Жыл бұрын
Thank you for filming this; my last visit, to this location, was about 40 years ago. The Forestry Commission had just taken over the site and were levelling buildings; it was like a sea of slate waste. The only way, I could navigate the site, was by using a 1950's map of the area.
@WobblyRunner Жыл бұрын
Cheers Geoff 👍👍🙂. I would love to have seen what it was before the trees, as pretty as it is these days.
@geoffward7786 Жыл бұрын
@@WobblyRunner If you are ever up that way again and in the Corris area; there is a quarry walk, that is off the beaten track, with a fantastic reward in the quarry
@itsjustspecial3231 6 ай бұрын
Great. I was a volunteer on the TR in the 1960s and took time more than once to explore Bryn Eglwys then. Buildings were still standing and inside what seemed to be the manager's house (I think), on the whitewashed wall someone had drawn an enormous female nude. Funny what you remember. Great times. I'd like to re-visit but that's not likely now. Thanks for sharing.
@WobblyRunner 6 ай бұрын
Great stuff. That must have been great to see when some of the buildings were still standing. Even though its mostly demolished and overgrown these days, I still loved my time there and it holds such great childhood memories of riding on the TR.👍😊
@lelelebell83 2 жыл бұрын
I live nearby in Tywyn and explore up here quite often! I can confirm you can still see the incline going down to the village from the railway track if you go behind the cafe towards the public toilets. I also know lots more places to explore and discover if you are ever back in the area!
@WobblyRunner 2 жыл бұрын
Thanks very much Lee👍🙂
@kymvalleygardensdesign5350 Жыл бұрын
I really enjoyed watching this I have a fascination about the slate quarries
@WobblyRunner Жыл бұрын
Thank you 👍. I wish I could have seen these quarries years ago
@thomasfrancis5747 Жыл бұрын
Nice one. Been on the railway many times but never got up to the quarry. Amazed what's still there.
@WobblyRunner Жыл бұрын
👍 I wish u could turn the clock back for a few hours and visit before the buildings and inclines were removed 🙂
@colvinator1611 Жыл бұрын
Superb video, thanks a lot.
@colvinator1611 Жыл бұрын
You're doing a great service to history which is vital in this day and age.
@WobblyRunner Жыл бұрын
Thanks Colin. I enjoyed this trip very much. Great memories and history.
@seamusmcevoy2011 2 жыл бұрын
Despite the wet weather you obviously had a great time, the solitude on that walk was excellent, it gave you the time to have a good old nose around. Nice to see some track, and those old buildings were something else too. The place was teeming with history - a terrific video.
@WobblyRunner 2 жыл бұрын
Cheers Seamus. This was one of my most enjoyable videos to make so far.
@wanderinglola4261 2 жыл бұрын
Very wet . Stunning sceneries. Great video. Thanks for sharing us more lovely places in Wales. Have a good day
@paularnold4440 2 жыл бұрын
Thanks for that Paul. Been on that line a couple of times. Big fan of L.T.C Rolt one of the saviours of the line along with the canal restoration he did in the 50's. Your walk looked great never ventured that far. Thanks
@WobblyRunner 2 жыл бұрын
Cheers Paul. It's a great little railway isn't it. Such a great history.
@mikebrown3772 2 жыл бұрын
So many more trees now than when I went up there more than 40 years ago. It really looks a lot more scenic up there now.
@WobblyRunner 2 жыл бұрын
👍 it certainly looks different from the old photos. You're right though, it is very scenic.
@kevbaker153 6 күн бұрын
It really has changed since I last went up there in the early 1980s the building were all still there then but in ruins shame they felt the need to destroy the remains
@rodsmith3911 2 жыл бұрын
My father began his interest in narrow gauge railways up at the Tal y Llyn in the early 50s.I have been interested and volunteered on the Ffestiniog since 1957 and have walked many of the quarries in North and Central Wales looking at the remains of the railways. Sad to see that there is less and less left of the tracks that once went all over the area. I'm now 75 and can't walk like I did so it's good to watch videos like this. You might like to look at the nearby Corris line next time you are there. The quarries at Aberllefeni were very interesting to explore though I have no idea what's left there nowadays. They were the same gauge as Tal y Llyn and the Corris locos were bought by T. R. in its early days of preservation, but much of the track in the quarries was used to move slate long after the line closed and so remained in situ for a long time. What may still be there today? I often wonder as I've found rails still left in place and rusting quietly away in many quarries I suppose that I was very lucky to have been able to see slate trains in the Dinorwic Quarries and to watch the little locos chuffing around the galleries on that side of the Llanberis valley whilst climbing Snowdon in the late 50s and early 60s before the closure and building of the electric pump storage system. When I was at college in Bangor I lodged with a Penrhyn Quarry manager and had access to quarry maps which enabled me to draw a lot of the removed lines onto my 1 inch O. S. map of Snowdonia which is now rather tattered from walking many miles of dismantled lines. Please keep up your explorations and keep folk informed of what is still there. I can see that you have been bitten by the same exploration bug that got me in my youth. Enjoy exploring, the world is full of great places to look at and it's great fun. All the best with the quest for new places to look at. I look forward to seeing the results!
@WobblyRunner 2 жыл бұрын
Thanks Rod. Great to here from you, I enjoyed reading that. Dinorwic is one that's on my radar. I'm really trying to convince my wife to go back next year to Wales for our holiday again. I remember going to Corris as a child and seeing the little railway.i don't think it was running at the time, but I'd been looking through maps there too. Love the old quarries.i don't know what it is, but they just fire up my imagination.
@rodsmith3911 2 жыл бұрын
@@WobblyRunner If you get to Dinorwic do try to find the last traces of the Padarn Railway which was 4 ft gauge and carried the 2 ft gauge quarry wagons piggybacked in two rows on transporter wagons to the Dock at Port Dinorwic (now known again by it's Welsh name of Y Velinheli between Caernarfon and Bangor. I know that upto a few years ago the 4 ft tracks were still in tarmac at some of the level crossings on minor roads as I actually measured the gauge! There is still plenty to explore on the route of the Penrhyn line between Bethesda and Port Penrhyn which is just East of Bangor. That's the line that Linda and Blanche on the Ffestiniog came from. Their brother Charles is in the museum at Penrhyn Castle in its original form. They were still running when I was on holiday in Penmaenmawr in the late 50s. Enjoy exploring the lines and quarries before the last remains disappear. Penrhyn Quarry is now a huge zip wire attraction and much has now gone from there. Regards Rod. (rodsmith@talk21.com) feel free to ask me for any info I can give you.
@WobblyRunner 2 жыл бұрын
@@rodsmith3911 thanks Rod. I've made a note of that 👍🙂
@Carolb66 8 ай бұрын
I loved this Paul! Recently I've been watching a few YT videos on the Welsh slate quarries & the people that explore the shafts & caves & portals its fascinating & stunning to see, a couple I've seen are what you filmed in this video. Well done for climbing those inclines but it's so worth it. Beautiful place even when raining. ❤😊👍
@WobblyRunner 8 ай бұрын
Cheers Carol. The old slate quarries fascinate me, especially the railway part of them. I'm no way as brave as those chaps that go inside some of those abandoned shafts and tunnels 😁. I had a few quarry trips planned in Wales this year before I ended up in the back of an ambulance.... so set for next year.
@Carolb66 8 ай бұрын
@@WobblyRunner better luck next year ! 😱🥰🤞
@thedembot Жыл бұрын
I’ve been up there a few times. Lovely part of the world. I moved to Tywyn in 2017, all this in my doorstep
@WobblyRunner Жыл бұрын
Beautiful part of the world 👍 you're so lucky
@jimthorne304 Жыл бұрын
If you look for 'Bryneglwys Quarry' on You Tube there are some caving vids of the quarry and the remaining equipment that's in it.
@WobblyRunner Жыл бұрын
Cheers Jim. Came across them after I'd been. Some fascinating stuff down there.
@stevenhayes2589 2 жыл бұрын
Lovery looking sceenary thanks for braving the rain great video we could do with some of that rain here in London
@WobblyRunner 2 жыл бұрын
Cheers Steven. You're right. I could happily sit in that rain today with my shorts on 😀
@davepogmore478 2 жыл бұрын
Fantastic, would have been good to see that working in its hey day, brilliant to see what we had in the past👍
@WobblyRunner 2 жыл бұрын
It sure would. This one really got my imagination going.
@mrbetamax1969 2 жыл бұрын
Looks refreshing that rain on a day like today 30c... Cheers 🍻 Paul 👍
@WobblyRunner 2 жыл бұрын
You know when I was putting the finishing touches today it felt so refreshing 😄
@MGdriver 2 жыл бұрын
Thank you - this is brillant! I love lost places and I am searching a little bit in Austria about forest raiways. Please continue!
@WobblyRunner 2 жыл бұрын
👍🙂 thank you. All the best with the Austrian forest railways.
@eliotreader8220 Жыл бұрын
I visited the railway back in 2017 with my Dad. sadly missed the entrance sign for their railway museum
@mikechorlton2590 2 жыл бұрын
Been on that walk at least 20 times and spot something different on every occasion. Beautiful views that change with every type of condition weather wise. I wish someone could tell me what the bench looking things 18” high 18”thick and 5 ft long built in slate are that are situated along the lines where the pony’s pulled the trucks
@WobblyRunner 2 жыл бұрын
Thanks Mike. I wondered that too. Make great seats these days though 🙂
@mikechorlton2590 2 жыл бұрын
@@WobblyRunner If ever I find out then I will let you know but been trying for 8 years now
@mikechorlton2590 2 ай бұрын
The yellow rods leading from the winding house are the brakes lever
@gilesestram 2 жыл бұрын
Good stuff Paul. Something about them Narrow Guage railways isnt there, specially as pretty much all of them have industrial begginings. If my Uncle watches (he is from The Rhonnda) he will be taking you to the Pronounciation Complaints Department ! A difficult trace at the top due to the all familiar Foilage issue, plus summer growth but these new grow plantation/forestry areas are very widespread, even in S Wales that used to hinder some of my explores back in the 90s. The rain was a decent addition as it would have pretty much been common for the workforce in the olden days, being fairly high up.
@WobblyRunner 2 жыл бұрын
Normally my pronounciation is bang on the money too. 🤔
@juliansadler6263 2 жыл бұрын
Read Tom Rolt's description of the quarry in the early 1950s before the scrap metal people got to it. And I have never been able to spend 24 hours in Machynlleth without it raining at least for an hour.
@WobblyRunner 2 жыл бұрын
😄 I think we got lucky with the weather overall the week we were there
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