In the November 2022 issue of Steam Days we took our readers from Aberystwyth to Dovey Junction over Cambrian metals in our all-colour photo-feature. In this issue we continue east from Dovey Junction via Machynlleth to Talerddig, and its climb of around three miles at 1 in 52 from Llanbrynmair to the summit.
As railway enthusiasts we all have happy hunting grounds that we would visit time and time again, perhaps a particular station, or a scenic lineside like Ribblehead, or a busy engine shed such as Holbeck’s roundhouse, or to a particular signal box with a friendly signalman who might invite us to help him pull a few levers. I vividly recall Pirton box, situated at the level crossing just south of Worcester on the Midland main line to Bristol. We went there so often that we would take a cake for the signalman to have with his coffee! One particular memory of a Pirton visit that I have was when double-headed LMS ‘Jubilees’ went racing through northbound from Bristol. The area around Pirton was a great spotting location where, at the nearby Abbotswood Junction, the Great Western main line from Worcester to Paddington passed over the Midland main line from Bristol to the North. I cycled there many times as ‘Jubilees’ were rare in Worcester. I also spent a happy day in the signal box at Dunkeld, on the Highland main line where the signalman chatted away all day and we joined him with his sandwiches.
I would often head for a location that provided an interesting station, with an engine shed nearby, and the close proximity of a bus garage or bus
