If you"re not British...

[Brian Fretwell]

I believe the trouble with that main site is because their certificates have expired (no money to renew?) so show as unsafe, the main cause of the trouble was due to debts on the engineering side of the railway that did work for other railways.

The link for donations is https://llangollenrailway.enthuse.com.

[Steve Klare]

We railway fans love to think that once a line escaped being scrapped 50 or more years ago, that they have reached some kind of Heaven and are immune from the economics of everything else. -Not true! The coal still needs to be paid for, along with the insurance, the taxes, the wages and the light bill!

We had East Broad Top, a 3 foot narrow-gauge line escape being scrapped in the early 1960s, along with 6 steam locomotives, several hundred cars, the machine shop and roundhouse and 33 miles of track. (The scrapping firm decided to save it). About 10 years ago it stopped running and all of it has just been standing idle ever since.

[Lee Mannering]

That is very saddening news Brian and what a wonderful railway with some gorgeous views. Do you have a link for donations as the one posted is flagging up unsafe? Thanks

[Brian Fretwell]

It's just a shame that the railway in your last picture, Lee, is having financial trouble, it is in administration the operating company is bankrupt, and if facing a sale of all it's assets. The support group is fundraising to buy them.
https://www.llangollen-railway.co.uk/

[Lee Mannering]

Don't think I stand much chance pronouncing it Dom and me a Man of Kent having been born on the East side of the river. 😎

[Maurice Leakey]

Steve
The official abbreviation is "Llanfair PG".

[Dominique De Bast]

Nice pictures, Lee. I have to admit I know few of the UK outside London. I visited Harpenden, Blackpool and many years ago Edinburg and Glasgow.

[Lee Mannering]

Some of our best holidays camping in sunshine and storms...even a flooded camp site with children canoeing past your tent REELY!

Here's a few snaps from the archive.


Festiniog Railway.



The year Lake Bala overflowed and our tents went floating with us all in them in a foot of water. Amazingly just about everyone was laughing and our foster children had a memorable holiday with us.



Wonderful times .... Was testing a new Camcorder for Panasonic at the time but these were shot with a Nikon.

Dom you would love Wales but take some 9-5 or 8mm film with you so much to capture.

[Steve Klare]

I get the feeling the people in the area have a nickname for the place: two, three syllables at the most!

[Dominique De Bast]

I have a very big platform ticket for the station there, bought on a school journey in the early 1960's.

Waw. Must be something...

[Brian Fretwell]

I have a very big platform ticket for the station there, bought on a school journey in the early 1960's.

[Maurice Leakey]

Click to read details of the name.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll - Wikipedia

[Steve Klare]

Mine was "Tan y Bwlch", a station along the Ffestiniog railway.

-as I understand it, pronounced "boolchh" (or "buulchh" if you like!).

This is the problem with learning new languages: you have to adopt these new ways of pronouncing the same alphabet, but then remember to reverse gears when speaking your own language.

I've been taking German a couple of years now, and every so often I pronounce a word like "Shtuttgart" or "Visebier" when speaking English and get funny looks from people!

[Brian Fretwell]

The problem is it's a Welsh name and Welsh puts different sounds to the same letters as other languages.

I saw a Welsh place name once. I said I'd never seen a word without a vowel. The Welsh speaker that posted it said "You still haven't: 'w' is a vowel in Welsh.".

-as English speakers, we basically lack the software to pronounce that name!

(I think you'd need to be able to take a really deep breath, too!)

Yes in Welsh W is exactly that double "U" ("UU"). I learnt that from the beer named Cwch, which seems to mean something like "Cuddle".

[Joe Caruso]

I consider myself of the persuaded Anglican, reminds one of the olde English wording in Canterbury Tales