It doesn't always do to go back, as I found to my cost last time I went to the Ffestiniog Railway,
so it was with some trepidation that I revisited the Talyllyn after a gap of nearly forty years.
I needn't have worried. The trains had more carriages, the engines were a little shinier and slightly more numerous, Tywyn and Abergynolwyn stations were a little bigger and the line a little longer, but otherwise nothing much had changed.
There are few railways that can match the Talyllyn for the combination of fine scenery, beautiful rolling stock, handsome motive power and picturesque stations.
Add to that, the fact that the it still retains the feel of the little line that L. T. C. Rolt and the other pioneers fought so hard to preserve back in 1952,
and the combination is unbeatable in my book.
For information on timetables, ticket prices, etc. please see the Talyllyn's official site detailed below.
Nant Gwernol
There is a display board at Nant Gwernol station detailing a number of walks in the area. This information is also currently available in Adobe Acrobat form from the
Natural Resources Wales web site.
The photographs below are taken on a combination of the yellow and red walks. If you catch first train up in the morning, on most days this has the advantage of getting you to Abergynolwyn ahead of the lunchtime rush.