Flooding Fails to Halt Race The Train

The 34th annual Tywyn Rotary Club Race the Train event took place on Saturday 19th August.
There was a slight element of drama before the race this year: The Friday evening engineering train had left Pendre around 18.30 the night before to do some work up the line. By the time they returned, extremely heavy rains had caused the stream at Cynfal to overflow over the track, depositing debris and mud on the line (photo right, Keith Theobald). The track was impassable and for the first time in many years, a steam engine was marooned east of Pendre and had to spend the night outdoors at Brynglas. The crew and gang members were rescued by road.
Early on Saturday morning a small gang headed to Cynfal to investigate. The stream had thankfully receded overnight. The gang had a lot of debris and mud to clear up in and around the stream-bed and track. Thanks to their efforts they were able to reopen the line in time for the first train of the day, the Quarry Challenge train.
Loco No. 6 Douglas’ crew also had a challenge – get to Brynglas to light up their engine in time to bring it down to Pendre for their train! Fortunately the Fireman drives a Land Rover so was happy to fill the back up with rags, wood and cleaning materials and head to Brynglas. Bringing Loco No. 6 down ‘light engine’ also gave them a chance to check the line out.
Happily all went well for the races on Saturday. Friday’s torrential rain had stopped and the weather was cool and cloudy. Around 1,500 competitors took part in the various races including 830 who ran in the main 14 mile Rotary Challenge race (photo above, Barbara Fuller). Congratulations to everyone who competed – the course was very muddy in places and looked hard going.
Many thanks as always to the organisers and volunteers who work very hard to make this race happen. The atmosphere in Tywyn on Race the Train day is amazing, the town is buzzing and everyone involved seems to have a brilliant time.

Karen Willans