389 swings round the hairpin on the stiff climb into Blaenllechau, the route still being the R32 in these days. The bus bears several battle scars at the front and carries a single-deck version of the Mello Mints advert frequently seen on the MCW-bodied front-entrance AEC Regent Vs.
The bridge over the railway centre right (still open here) marks the site of Ferndale Nos. 1 and 5 pits - the Ferndale pits were scattered along the valley and numbered in a seemingly-random way. There was railway track from the colliery itself to where the buildings are on the outside of the bend here. It's not quite clear what that was for but it may have been to supply domestic coal for use in Blaenllechau itself.
The colliery suffered tragedies even worse than those at Wattstown just down the valley, in 1867 and 1869. The first explosion led to the loss of 178 lives and a further 53 were lost in the second. Coal did not come without a very high cost.
