Colin Churchers Blog for 2017: Friday 2 June - Snowdon, almost and Welsh Highland Railway

Early morning calm at Porthmadog

We took the bus to Caernarfon and transferred to the bus for Llanberis in good time to pick up our reservations on the 1200 train to Snowdon summit.

While waiting for the departure we took a quick look at the Llanberis Lake Railway with its small Hunslet engine.

We boarded the diesel propelled train at Llanberis and as we set off the driver mentioned that the weather was not good at the summit. We eventually got into the cloud near Clogwyn where we stopped and were told that there was a track problem ahead and we would have to return to Llanberis but we would receive a full refund. This was the best result we could have hoped for. There was no point in going to the summit because it was socked in, we had ridden the train, we had returned in good time to get to Caernarfon to catch the Welsh Highland Railway back to Porthmadog and we received a full refund.

Click here to see all pictures taken at Llanberis

Llanberis

This was as far as we got -Clogwyn

There was a little boy and his dad sitting at the back of the bus to Caernarfon. They got off at an intermediate stop and the boy walked down the aisle stopping at each seat saying goodbye. As the bus moved off he said goodbye to the bus.

The Welsh Highland station in Caernarfon is being built new and it was a little walk out of town to get tickets but there was still plenty of time to walk around the pleasant old town although the area close to the station is very grotty. People getting off the train might think that Caernarfon was a parking lot surrounded by abandoned buildings out of which rose a castle.

The ride back to Porthmadog was superb. From rain at Llanberis we left Caernarfon in good sun and were treated to some superb scenery right through to Rhyd Ddu and Beddgelert. The rhododendrons were in full bloom and the sheep were frolicking in the fields.