Ffestiniog Railway

The Ffestiniog Railway (in Welsh Rheilffordd Ffestiniog) is a narrow-gauge heritage railway, located in Snowdonia in north west Wales.

The railway company is properly known as the "Festiniog Railway Company" and this anglicised spelling is still the official title of the company as defined by the act of parliament that created the railway. It is the oldest existing railway operating company in the world, having been founded in 1829 with capital raised on the Dublin stock exchange. Most British railways were amalgamated into four large groups in 1921, and then into British Railways in 1948, but the Festiniog company remained independent: in 1921 this was due to heavy political lobbying, whereas in 1948 it was left out of British Railways despite vigorous local lobbying for it to be included.

The Ffestiniog railway is about 15 miles (24 km) long and runs between the towns of Blaenau Ffestiniog and Porthmadog. The line travels through spectacular mountainous scenery and has a track gauge of 1 foot 11.5 inches.

The Ffestiniog railway is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Wales. It was originally constructed in the 1830s to transport slate from the quarries around the inland town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, to the coastal town of Porthmadog where it was loaded onto ships. The railway was graded so that loaded wagons could be run by gravity from Blaenau Ffestiniog to the port downhill all the way. The empty wagons were hauled back up by horses, which travelled down in special wagons. In 1863 steam locomotives were introduced, to allow a greater number of slate trains to be run, and this also enabled the introduction of passenger trains in 1865: the Ffestiniog was the first narrow gauge railway in Britain to carry passengers. From 1869 a number of double Fairlie articulated locomotives were introduced, and these have since become one of the most widely recognised features of the railway.

By the 1920s the demand for slate as a roofing material dropped, due to the advent of newer materials. As a result, the railway suffered a gradual decline in traffic. During this period it was linked with the newer Welsh Highland Railway, which proved to be a financial liability. Passenger traffic ceased on the outbreak of war in 1939, and slate traffic ceased in August 1946. For some years the line lay derelict.

In the early 1950s a group of volunteers purchased the company to run it as a tourist attraction, and gradually restored the line to working order. This was not helped by a decision by the CEGB (Central Electricity Generating Board) in the mid 1950s to build the Tanygrisiau reservoir, which flooded part of the northern end of the line. The Festiniog Railway Company was able to obtain compensation in 1971, after the second longest legal battle in British history, having taken ten years. Two years later, as a result of the case, the British Parliament passed the Land Occupancy Act 1973.

In the 1970s a new diversion route including a rail spiral and a tunnel was built around the reservoir by volunteer labour, and the through route to Blaenau Ffestiniog was completed in 1982; the group building this deviation were originally officially called the Civil Engineering Group, but habitually called themselves the Deviationists.

There are current plans to reinstate the link with the Welsh Highland Railway when the latter is completed from Caernarfon to Porthmadog. Funding was secured to begin this project in 2004.

Stations

References

  1. J.I.C. Boyd The Festiniog Railway, 1800 - 1974 (two volumes). The Oakwood Press, 1975.
  2. Peter Johnson Immortal Rails — the story of the closure and revival of the Ffestiniog Railway 1939–1983 (Volume 1). RailRomances, Chester, 2004. ISBN 1-9000622-08-4.

External links

Template:British heritage railways

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