Backscene
An envelope of old pictures has turned Chris Leigh’s thoughts to narrow gauge and how times have changed where ready-to-run narrow gauge is concerned.
In my Steam World editorial capacity I recently received an envelope of photographs from one of my colleagues. They were black and white prints of the Talyllyn and Vale of Rheidol railways taken by her grandad in the very early 1950s. The immediate post-war period was something of a narrow gauge watershed.
The Lynton & Barnstaple and Leek & Manifold had closed before the Second World War. The Ffestiniog had eventually closed in 1946 and was yet to re-open. The newly created BR had closed the Corris Railway and the Talyllyn had been acquired by a bunch of enthusiasts, to become the first preserved railway.