Our Staff Experience - Talyllyn Railway
Myself and two of my daughters were lucky enough to have the opportunity to experience a day out on the Talyllyn Railway. It was a soggy, damp day in March, but this didn’t spoil our enthusiasm. The railway offers hop-on and hop-off daily tickets so you can get on and off at different stations along the line, depending on how you would like to spend your day.
We hopped onto the lunchtime train - train number 7 called Tom Rolt - and made our way along the line admiring the daffodils and primroses. The lambs playing in the fields and the stunning green scenery was breathtaking.
We passed through the smaller stations of Pendre, Rhydyronen and Bryn Glas, through tunnels, listening to the sound of the steam train trundling along and whistling from time to time, and waving to a few children excitedly standing at the caravan site waiting to see the train pass.
The train stops at Dolgoch Falls where you can disembark and head up to the lower and upper falls. We could see and hear some of the waterfalls from the train which were in full flow after the recent rainfall.
We continued along towards Abergynolwyn, another potential hop-off point, but we decided to go to the end of the line at Nant Gwernol. The train waits here for a few moments for those passengers that want to quickly see the waterfalls before returning to Abergynolwyn for a refreshment stop.
Nant Gwernol is in the heart of the forestry and there are many signposted walks from here all with various levels of difficulty and lengths of walks. We crossed the river to view the spectacular waterfall before heading back over the line. Following the red footpath up a steep bank, we headed along a fairly level path through the quiet, tranquil forest and then walked back to Abergynolwyn Station. This took us around 30 minutes and the café at the station, The Quarryman’s Cabin, was a welcome sight on our return - we had a wonderful lunch and hot drink. There are also toilets with baby changing facilities and a play park with an amazing slide (which my daughters happily tried out). You could also spend some time in Abergynolwyn village itself.
We then jumped back onto the train at Abergynolwyn for our return trip to Tywyn. At Tywyn Wharf station, you can visit the King's Café and there is also the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum which has artefacts spanning 200 years with a section dedicated to Reverend W. V. Awdry, creator of Thomas the Tank Engine. Awdry was an early volunteer on the Talyllyn Railway, and its history and his experiences were his inspiration.
To sum up our day, we all had a lovely time, and being local residents, it is easy to miss the amazing things on our doorstep. But we have all promised ourselves a repeat trip in the summer on, hopefully, a sunnier day.
It was a brilliant time and I would recommend a day out on the Talyllyn train. You can get off at different stops and have a lovely walk, like we did. I enjoyed it because we spent family time together and I really liked the walk through the forest. The café was very nice to have drinks, lunch and cakes - and the slide at the park was great too.
By Alicia, aged 13
Many thanks to the Talyllyn Railway for organising this fabulous day out. To find out more about the railway and to book your tickets, please click the link below.
Don't forget, you will receive 20% off your tickets when you stay with us.
Talyllyn Railway
Head over to our TikTok page to follow the girls' day out.
