"Proper" Trains (dashed line) ...
... arrived at Bethesda in 1884
... and the line closed to passengers in 1951 - very much pre-Beeching! But Station Road still stands proud ...
.. with the word Stesion rather than the usual Gorsaf as part of a tiled street name sign. Don't tell Siddy, she will get over-excited for Christmas!
Where the station once stood ...
Much of the line is a footpath and cycle way including the short tunnel shown on the map below.
The remains of the track can be glimpsed briefly alongside the A5 ...
... and the tunnel looks fun!
Tregarth station is no more ...
... sweet though it was.
The filled-in bridge remains as a clue.
Near to the site of Felin Hen Halt ... 
... we have a mighty bridge over the A424 for cyclists and pedestrians who like going a long way round to cross the road.
Were these once "Station Houses"?
The foot/cycle way leads on and under the Cegin viaduct ...
... which carries the main line to Bangor and Holyhead over the river valley. Interestingly, at this point, the walkway is now following the line of the Penrhyn Quarry railway having left the "proper" line on its left.
Indeed, an aerial view clearly shows the former standard gauge line as a scar of scrubbasge curving up to join the main line.
The walk/ride way continues to follow the narrow gauge trackbed until Porth Penrhyn.
We may well meet the road-over bridge at Porth Penrhyn in tomorrow's blog?
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Advent Calendar Day 20
Ultimate Unction
Unction?
So, when you spread butter on your toast, you are applying "unction", literally anointing the toast with oil.
For many Christians, the sacramental anointing ("extreme unction") is not practised, but the idea behind the ritual is summarised thus:-
The sacrament is administered by a bishop or priest, who uses the oleum infirmorum ('oil of the sick'), an olive oil or another pure plant oil blessed by a bishop, to anoint the patient's forehead and perhaps other parts of the body while reciting certain prayers. It gives comfort, peace and courage.
In AD70 Jerusalem was destroyed. It was the culmination if some 170 years of turmoil that affected the nation of Israel under Greek and Roman domination. To add to the political pressures, Christians were attacked, imprisoned and martyred (e.g. Stephen) under the authority of the Jewish establishment.
Yet Christianity survived and thrived.
Here is Paul, the one-time chief persecutor, writing to the "Romans" - although no one is quite certain which Romans they actually were.
We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.
In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us?
For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below - there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.
That is, indeed' "unction" ...
... that flows, not from Mackeson, but from the Christ of CHRISTmas.
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Next Thursday thread blog : 22nd December
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