Fairlight Works

Morning sunshine in Llanberis

Saturday in Porthmadog was nicely rounded off with a large steak and a few pints of Purple Moose Brewery‘s Cwrw Eryri / Snowdonia Ale in Royal Sportsman Hotel. With the clocks going forward overnight, we were treated to glorious early morning sunshine for the drive over Pen-y-Pass (via Aberglaslyn Gorge) to visit the National Slate Museum at Llanberis. The light was still low over the mountains when we arrived, which created some excellent conditions for photography.

A preserved gravity balanced incline, now electrically assisted for H&S reasons.

The beautiful setting for the museum, at the old Gilfach Ddu workshops of the Dinorwic quarry. In the foreground is the station of the Llanberis Lake Railway, previously the terminus although the line has now between extended alongside the left of the museum building to Llanberis village and the foot of the Snowdon Mountain Railway.

Hunslet 0-4-0ST Elidir (ex-Dinorwic Quarry) was dragged out of the loco shed by a Ruston diesel to steam up in the sunshine.

The sunlight through the drifting smoke made for some very atmospheric pictures.

An interesting weathering challenge inside the machine shop. All the machinery was powered by a huge waterwheel, which is still operational although its location inside a very tall, narrow enclosure makes photography difficult.

And some wonderful light and shadow from the morning sun in the foundry.

• Previous: Shunting at Porthmadog
• Next: Blanche, colour popped