I should say the number of entires was quite well down, due to possibly the changes of date and also several people either crying off or saying they couldn't come. However, it was still an entertaining competition
First out were the mamods, only two entrants this year, and a bit of a non event! PTLR cecil was out first with Black Beauty, which managed 20 wagons before the failure of the forward/reverse valve spring. I didn't get any pics of it unfortunatly
Next, PTLRsam got out Mardol, aiming for a big improvement of last year when Mel only managed 1 wagon (and a plastic cow...). He got it, Mardol managed 8 wagons before it proved unable to sustain steam with 9. Victory went to Simon, although Black Beauty was on form before the failure and could have managed more, maybe even more then Sir Luke's record breaking run last year. Now if James hadn't decided that playing with HST's would be more fun, he could quite easily have been taking the mamod trophy back to Yorkshire with him!
Next, the allcomers cup, first up was this entry from a person who reffered to himself as "The Fat Controller"
Thomas managed 1 wagon and suprisingly wasn't last!
I was out next with Owain my Accucraft Superior, and looking to avenge last year when wagon derailments left me next to last despite manageing just one less wagon then the garratt. I initially took 36 wagons, thought this feels far to easy and raised the bar to 51. This also seemed rather easy, with Owain blowing off and toying with the load, so I went up to 57 wagons
This was also managed easily, so I then took everything (69 wagons) Realiseing that this might well come down to time (if the number of wagons runs out, then the runner is the loco that pulls all the wagons in the quickest time) we spent a lot of time finding a stopwatch, unfortunatly this ate into Owains gas supply, and then there were some false starts because of the stopwatch being started at the wrong time. This meant that 1 lap round with 69 wagons, the gas ran out. I was promised another run to componsate, but the weather turned nasty later on, so I finished up 3rd. A big improvement though!
Next was PTLRsams garratt, which jumped straight in with 69 wagons and recorded a time for 3 mins 57 seconds to take that train round for two laps
3 mins 57 was still a beatable time, if another loco could take 69 wagons quickly....
Third up was FRthunderbolt's Jack, "Fairfield". Unfortunatly, being a small 0-4-0 it didn't have the traction of the bigger locos, and only managed 40 wagons. An attempt with 50 got round a lap but the loco then ran out of water (no damage was done it was noticed immediatly)
Next entry was Simon, who decided to steam his Accucraft Lyn, since the rails were still dry at this point. Despite only being 4 coupled, this loco is exceptionally powerful when conditions are in its favour. After a banker run with 51 wagons, Si sent it out with the full 69, aiming for a faster time then Black Coombe
Which against all the odds, it managed!!! Despite drizzle starting on the second lap and slowing Lyn down, it kep going and posted a time of 3 mins 35 seconds! Meaning, we have a new King of the NWAG!!!
Final steam loco out was Matt's Lawley, he wasn't there but his loco was at the PTLR works and he requested it was entered. No photos again (by this time, the drizzle had become torrential rain) It took round 56 wagons, but an attempt to join the 69 club failed when it slipped to a stand.
Final entry was Criccieth Castle on behalf of my uncle, but I'm afraid the conditions got the better of both loco and driver. It failed to get 50 wagons underway due to poor rail conditions and the driver decided to withdraw from the competition.
Now then, the record length train! The guys at the Llechfan Garden Railway told me last summer that the longest train they has ever run was in the order of around 75 wagons. The NWAG does not like to loose at anything, so our previous best of 51 was not good enough. I had bought along some wagons, however it was decided not to use them in the competition. We did hold them in reserve though for making up a monster length train, so they were added to the 69, along with one of FR thundebolts brake vans to make up a 81 wagons train!
It was actually too big to get in one photo!
The train was taken by 1st and 2nd placed locos Lyn and Black Coombe and filled up well over half of the Fairfield Railway!
I should say that Black Coombe managed to move all 81 wagons by itself for 1 1/2 laps before it lost steam pressure, an fantastic performance!
Thanks go to FR thunderbolt for allowing us to use his railway, although hopefully we will have a few more entries next year
