Thursday 31 May - Travel to London for Eltham College Class of 1960

I decided to take a train earlier than the one I had booked to get to Wolverhampton. Good job I did because the London train at Wolverhampton was only five cars instead of ten and stood in the platform there for 15 minutes.  Many people with reservations in the missing cars were perplexed and complained bitterly. Obviously Virgin Trains had problems because the missing 5 cars were added at Birmingham.

Lunch at the Skinners Arms was attended by Dai Bamford, Dai Rhys-Tyler, Derek Browne, Peter Gregory Mike Fulford, Clive Grenyer, John Bingham and me. It was a great time and once again we settled most of the world's problems. Regrets and greetings were received from  Charles Smith, John Palmer, Colin Bishop, Roy Bennett, Gethyn Timothy, Ian Cunningham, John Boyd, Ray Godfrey.

Peter Gregory

Mike Fulford

Derek Browne

Dai Banford

Colin Churcher

Dai Rhys-Tyler

Clive Grenyer

John Bingham

Clive asked that I take a few profile shots, I don't think this is what he had in mind.  This picture has been heavily cropped to avoid otherwise embarasing detail

It was good to see Clive and Dai Bamford whom we haven't seen for a year or so.  Dai Rhys-Tyler performed his complicated accounting on the beer and food kitties.

Waiting at Euston for my train back to Shrewsbury I noticed that the train before mine had been cancelled.  Good job I had a seat reservation as my train was overcrowded with the luckless passengers from the earlier train.  Train travel in the UK is becoming quite uncertain and uncomfortable.

Additional pictures:

Wednesday 30 May - A Lazy Day

Rain was in the forecast today so we postponed a trip to Bishops Castle. It turned out to be not very much at all.

The river Severn was glassy smooth this morning in spite of the rain over the weekend. This is the old brewery, now condos.

The surface of the water was only broken by the odd duck or swan. It was pretty noisy with the blackbirds, robins and ducks and the screeching swallows ducking and wheeling overhead.
Just as I was taking this picture a large black soaking wet Labrador came bouncing up.  He jumped around but luckily he didn't shake himself.

The painters have just finished giving a repaint to these decorative gates for the Quarry. Civic pride.

Tuesday 29 May - Chirk

My present from Mary.

We decided to go to Chirk today. We managed it despite the worst intentions of Arriva Trains Wales whose over crowded trains managed to be a little late going and very late returning. ATW must be the worst railway in the UK. Good job Veolia will be getting the franchise later this year - they couldn't do a worse job.

The vegetation by the Chirk tunnel mouth is very lush and verdant

The canal tunnel is long enough to require a flash light as we passed several families coming the other way.  Just before we went in there emerged a large party of scouts who must have made a great deal of noise.

The tunnel is single width

We walked over the aqueduct and along the tow path to the next road bridge. The railway viaduct, to the right here, is also impressive. The canal actually goes under the railway in the tunnel.

Good view of the aqueduct with the railway viaduct behind it.

We found a footpath, steep in places which took us into downtown Chirk. It contained a couple of rickety stiles.

Fancy playing football on this

The trees were in full bloom and there were a couple of hawks circling above looking for a meal.

Also the field flowers (weeds)

We had a drink in the Hands pub and then caught the delayed train from Holyhead back to Shrewsbury.

Dinner this evening was at the Armoury. It was excellent although the Guiness ice cream didn't taste of Guiness and it was a nasty grey color.

The mayflies were swarming over the river as we walked back to the apartment.

Monday 28 May - Cyfronydd

I spent the whole day from 0800 until 1730 at Cyfronydd on the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway. I took a folding chair, sandwiches and water and did a survey of the crossing here to examine vehicle driver behaviour. The weather was good and there were two others there most of the time to operate the block post. There were ten steam trains running today and they were passing here so I had a bonus of lots of steam action - although I couldn't stray far from the crossing.
Cyfronydd station is in the country surrounded by fields, woods and a few houses. There were lots of birds including a hawk which kept circling around a couple of trees in a field of cattle.  There were two nests in these trees and the crows made a racket whenever the kite came near.

The first train of the day was hauled by Earl - coming up the grade into Cyfronydd

The second train was with Joan

The two meet here

The last train of the day was with Earl in beautiful sun. It picked me up and brought me into Llanfair Caereinion

At Llanfair Caereinion

The "new" coach had been put into service last Saturday

Click here to see all pictures taken on the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway this trip

Sunday 27 May - A Lazy Day

It was a holiday weekend but the Three Fishes was not busy

There was a dire weather forecast for today - heavy rain at times with thunder and lightning, Sure enough the thunder began around  0600 and it rained heavily during the morning. However, the sun came out around lunch time and it was hot for a period before another bout of rain later in the afternoon.  In between we managed a drink at the Three Fishes, some grocery shopping and an excellent carvery lunch at the Coach and Horses - the roast potatoes were even better than normal.

Saturday 26 May - Linda and Frances leave

Another fire insurance Badge, also on Shoplatch

This morning we determined to walk along the river from the English bridge towards the Welsh bridge.  The weather was better than yesterday.

We made a detour through the Dingle where some of the colors were a little muted as a result of the effects of yesterday's rain. We had coffee/tea at the Loopy Shrew and a burger at the Lyon's Den.  After that there was just time to pick up their bags at the Lion and take a quick look at the castle.

We all had a great time together and it was a shame that the weather didn't cooperate. It turned cloudy when they arrived on Thursday, rained all day yesterday, and was cloudy and drizzly until they left when the sun then came out and shined brightly.

The town was very busy being a Saturday. There were a great many "convicts" from the prison dressed in dayglow orange running around on a treasure hunt. They were being pursued by warders in dark blue uniforms. There was a lot of congestion around the roast meat sandwich shop on the hill away from the station.

Friday 25 May - Shrewsbury in the Rain

Plate of the Shropshire and North Wales Assurance Co. whose records date from 1780.
On the wall of a building at the bottom of Shoplatch 

It rained all day today - in consequence the only picture I took outside is shown above.  Linda and Frances were here for the day so we had to do indoor things.  We had lunch at the Coach and Horses where an anticipated small sandwich turned into a fairly large plate with salad, chips and Yorkshire pudding.

The market provided a great deal of interest.

The main floor can be best appreciated from the upper level

A great addition is the Gin Palace - Gindifferent.  They have some 90 different gins and the server was very knowledgeable

  

The tasting went well and a second course was necessary.

As the market was closing we opened our umbrellas and found a shop selling old comics and other bric a brac  before walking up Pride Hill and looking at the view from the car park of The Parade  Shopping Centre, formerly the Salop Infirmary.

From there we took water lane down to the river and walked along to the English Bridge.

Dinner this evening was at the Tudor House.

Thursday 24 May - Linda and Frances Visit

My second cousins, Linda and Frances, arrived by train from London and we met them on the platform. The forecast was for rain but we had only a few drops and it brightened up towards the evening, 

We started with a light lunch at the Bear Steps

 After checking in to the Lion we had a walk through town into the Dingle where the rhododendrons put on a good show.

The Hole in the Wall

After visits to the Boathouse and the Three Fishes we finished up at the Armoury for dinner where one of the starters were macaroni cheese balls, breaded and deep fried.