Life on a Welsh Narrow Gauge Railway

[Katharine]

Conversation earlier today:
Passenger who got off the train at a station in the woods 'Am I where I think I am?'
Guard: 'I couldn't possibly say, Madam, where so you think you are?'
Passenger: 'The place I cannot pronounce.'
Guard: 'Possibly, we are at Tan y Bwlch'
Passenger: 'That's the one'

We do have a station at Dduallt which, for some reason, some passengers find difficult to say.

Yesterday's gem was a passenger in the cafe saying 'Do I have to go outside to get on the train?'

[DavebytheSea]

Behind every monitor is a person with feelings THINK before you type'

Behind every monitor is a person with years of keeping to the rules. THINK before you try and explore the tube.

[Hendrik]

Behind every monitor is a person with years of keeping to the rules. THINK before you try and explore the tube.

Tan y Bwlch is easy to pronounce. Ignorant English tossers these days, eh.

(Tann ih bulch). The Bwlch is also a mountain in the Rhondda (on the very edge of, infact) is this the same one? I used to go and feed the sheep there all the time as a child, they would literally charge you as soon as they heard a bread bag rustle. And they rolled over cattle grids, not as stupid as you think...

Two English tourists are in a small mining town in the Rhondda. They cannot agree on how to pronounce the name of the place so one of them suggests going into a local eating establishment and asking someone who works there.
They go into the restaurant and ask an obliging member of staff how to pronounce the name. The long-suffering woman looks at them and replies in a slow, loud voice:

"BUR, GER, KING"

[Katharine]

Hendrik, it is quite a different mountain, I am in North Wales, the railway is the Ffestiniog.

Today's poser:
'How high does this railway go?' 'About 700 feet to Blaenau Ffestiniog'
'Is that too high to be safe for my pregnant wife?'

How does he think the good folk of Blaenau Ffestiniog and places higher cope?

Behind every monitor is a person with feelings THINK before you type'

Behind every monitor is a person with years of keeping to the rules. THINK before you try and explore the tube.

Dave, I have had that tag line for months now. It may surprise you to know that there are people who use this forum who only have the haziest of ideas what/where the tube is.

[DavebytheSea]

I know! I know! It's dreadful how as senility approaches on types the silliest things. So sorry, Katharine!

PS The Tube is a tunnel that runs the full length of the avenue. In wet weather houses used to march up it to Dining Hall for all meals. It has branches that carry service pipes to the Chapel, Big School etc. There are rumoured extensions alleged to run much further afield e.g. to the Sicker, Station , Sharpenhurst etc.

These days, it is considered very much against the rules to even contemplate a descent into the underworld although only on Saturday, a current squit gave me detailed instructions on how it could be done.

PPS Some of us have only a very hazy idea about Hertford, but we read about it with immense interest. It is, I believe, up north somewhere and once contained not only CH girls but also, incredibly, a very much larger contingent of boys, numbering (c1870) well over 100 boys as against only the bare minimum 18 girls prescribed by the West Gifts. You girls have the West family to thank that you did not disappear altogether.

[Katharine]

Thanks, Dave, for that explanation of the Tube, I had gathered something like that. Mind you I had thought you would all be tough enough to go to Dining Hall through the rain!

Yes the girls' school does have to be grateful for the West family keeping it going. We all knew that a girl's name is the first to appear on the first register way of the school but it did not show a commitment to a full EDUCATION for the female of the species. There were boys at Hertford from the early days until they all went to Horsham and we got the school buildings that all of us Hertford girls on here knew and loved(?). It must have been a very expensive time for the Foundation building both schools.

[kerrensimmonds]

I invite you to browse this most interesting website :-0

http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.u ... spital.htm

[kerrensimmonds]

Though what this has to do with a Welsh narrow gauge railway beats me!

[marty]

Yesterday's gem was a passenger in the cafe saying 'Do I have to go outside to get on the train?'

Reminds me of the time an American tourist asked the tour guide at Windsor why they built the castle in the flight path of Heathrow...

[J.R.]

I'm told the first Welsh word taught to young boys is, SHEEP.




The second two are...........












LEISURE CENTRE !

[Katharine]

Though what this has to do with a Welsh narrow gauge railway beats me!

Kerren, this is one of the delights of this Forum, the way threads can get 'hijacked' and anything can appear on any thread.

[kerrensimmonds]

Thread this and thread that?!
I wondered if I should post that Hertford Genealogy website link on any other part of the Forum. It really is quite fascinating... especially the links to the 1881 census, names of girls, boys, staff etc.
(I got to know about it when I was bidding against the webmaster for the medal which is featured, when it was sold on eBay two/three years ago. I was pipped at the post at £100 in the last few seconds. I offered to buy it from him, but it turned out that he is an amateur archivist living in Hertford, who is fascinated by all things Christ's Hospital, Hertford).

[Great Plum]

I remember going on a narrow gauge railway in Wales when I was a kid. Don't think it was yours though... it was the one which Rev. Awdry used in some of his books - I remember being excited to go on those trains! I've forgotten the name of it at the moment!

[DavebytheSea]

Thanks, Dave, for that explanation of the Tube, I had gathered something like that. Mind you I had thought you would all be tough enough to go to Dining Hall through the rain!

There is a truly fascinating thread about the Tube on this forum:

viewtopic.php?t=126&highlight=underground

I have just greatly enjoyed re-reading it!

[Katharine]

I remember going on a narrow gauge railway in Wales when I was a kid. Don't think it was yours though... it was the one which Rev. Awdry used in some of his books - I remember being excited to go on those trains! I've forgotten the name of it at the moment!

Probably the Talyllyn, several of their engines appear in the stories, only one of ours does (Duke the lost engine is in reality Prince).
There is a CH link here as Diana Awdry, née Scott, was Deputy Head Girl in my first year. After marrying Christopher she realised that the family were missing out on the possibilities of money making from the stories - at that time there were only 4 printed each year. I don't know the full story of who she contacted or what happened next but we all know that Thomas is now ubiquitous, thanks in part to Diana.