Last full day in Aberystwyth, so I decided to ride the Vale of Rheidol railway.
I’d originally intended to go on the 10:00 trip, but at some point I’d turned my alarm off, and by the time I woke up it was clear that the morning trip wasn’t going to be happening, so I had a leisurely brunch and went on the 14:00 instead. Hadn’t bought the tickets because I figured they probably wouldn’t sell out; I was right.
It’s your standard historical preservation railway, and they’ve got their museum shed of all the narrow gauge stuff they’ve collected/restored; Some big, some absolutely tiny. I took a picture of the floor, which was end grain lumber cutoffs; the idea is that they’re soft enough that they won’t damage dropped tools or parts, and they’ll absorb spills. And, probably pretty cheap?
The trip takes about an hour. There are a few stops along the way, and to my understanding there are sometimes people using it as a transport option, presumably for hiking or similar. I’ve seen a lot of hikers in Wales; Most of the “side of a road in the middle of nowhere” passengers on the bus were carrying small backpacks & hiking poles.
The internal layout of the carriages was fun. 2/3 doors on each side (locked from the outside with a special key) giving access to sections of seating, full width seats between sections and an aisle on one side within them. The door on the other side of the carriage would be at the other end of the section of seats.
I have to say that there’s not really a lot at the other end of the journey, though I did find somewhere that sold me an ice cream, so that’s a win as far as I’m concerned.
Down the road a way is Devils Bridge, and while I didn’t leave myself enough time to go take the walking track to look at the thing more closely (three bridges on top of each other), you can at least see the structure from the narrow road.
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