We’re really looking forward to welcoming visitors to the F&WHR in June, when we celebrate ‘Seventy Years of Restored Passenger Services’ on the Ffestiniog Railway.
As part of this year’s PLATINUM JUBILEE, a number of cameos and repaints have taken place or been planned.
On Tuesday 19th May 1964, the Ffestiniog Railway was visited by Terence Cuneo, a renowned artist who is especially remembered for his detailed railway scenes. The visit required two trains to pose at Tan-y-Bwlch so he could prepare sketches etc for a finished painting which could be used for publicity purposes. See https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/Terence_Cuneo for more information on that visit.
The completed painting, entitled ‘The Pass Track’, has been a familiar image to many over the years and, with ‘Merddin Emrys’ having been turned out in green livery, the opportunity was taken to stage a recreation of the scene at Tan-y-Bwlch. This was shown in an episode of ‘Moving Pictures’, but the still images here allow more chance to compare the painting and the recreation…
Andrew, the grandson of Terence Cuneo and representative of ‘The Cuneo Estate’, was delighted with the final result of this recreation;
“My attention was captured when I watched a video on the railway’s YouTube page, titled ‘Moving Pictures 106, where a recreation of the scene ‘The Pass Track’ painting by Terence Cuneo took place near the top end of Tan y Bwlch station. I thought it was a lovely idea and a rather moving film, my grandfather was a huge steam fan and the Ffestiniog Railway was a great favourite of his.”
Further information on ‘The Cuneo Estate’ can be found here: https://www.terencecuneo.com/
You can enjoy recreations of many Ffestiniog Railway trains from the 1950s onwards during the ‘PLATINUM JUBILEE WEEKEND’ on June 20th-22nd – not forgetting our highly-anticipated ‘200 wheels on the Cob’ loco cavalcade.
There’s further information and a link to event tickets here.
