Welsh Highland Heritage Railway Rheilffordd Ucheldir Cymru (Welsh) | |
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Bagnall 3050 Gelert at Porthmadog alongside a Cambrian line train | |
Locale | Wales |
Terminus | Porthmadog and Pen y Mount |
Commercial operations | |
Name | Welsh Highland Railway Ltd |
Built by | Welsh Highland Railway Ltd |
Original gauge | 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in (597 mm) |
Preserved operations | |
Owned by | Welsh Highland Railway Ltd |
Operated by | Welsh Highland Heritage Railway |
Stations | 3 |
Length | 1 mile (1.6 km) |
Preserved gauge | 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in (597 mm) |
Commercial history | |
Opened | 1980 |
Preservation history | |
1961 | Welsh Highland Railway Society formed |
1964 | WHR Society reformed as Welsh Highland Light Railway (1964) Limited |
1980 | WHR Ltd opened for passenger service |
1987 | Original locomotive Russell restored |
2003 | Original locomotive Russell taken out of service for expensive major overhaul. |
2005 | Celebrates 25 years of passenger train service |
2007 | Extended to Traeth Mawr |
2008 | Last train to Traeth Mawr |
2009 | Operational name changed to Welsh Highland Heritage Railway. Terminus reverts to Pen y Mount. |
2014 | Original locomotive Russell back in service. |
The Welsh Highland Heritage Railway is a short reconstructed heritage railway in Gwynedd, Wales. Its main station is in Porthmadog.
The origins of the WHHR lie in a small group of railway enthusiasts, including some disgruntled volunteers from the Festiniog Railway, forming the Welsh Highland Railway Society in 1961, [1] to preserve and rebuild the original Welsh Highland Railway which had operated from 1922 to 1936.
Land running alongside the Cambrian Coast line at Beddgelert Siding was acquired from British Railways in December 1972. [2] Work started on construction of the railway in 1973. A substantial works and engineering facility was constructed on the site of the former farm that was situated in the triangle of land between the Beddgelert Siding, the Cambrian Coast Railway and the original Welsh Highland Railway trackbed. The works have been expanded with newly constructed sheds and the re-use of some of the original agricultural buildings, which include one of the oldest buildings in Porthmadog.[ citation needed ] A museum of narrow gauge railways is part to the works tour and from 2009, with the construction of a new building, this has more than doubled in size.
The original Welsh Highland Railway has been reconstructed by the Festiniog Railway Company and the Welsh Highland Railway Limited.
The railway offers a short train ride in heritage carriages to Pen-y-Mount Junction (where there is a physical connection to the current Welsh Highland Railway), just under a mile away from Porthmadog. On the return journey the train stops at Gelerts Farm Halt, the location of the workshops and museum, where visitors can also ride on the Miniature Railway before returning to Porthmadog (WHHR).
The railway is mostly run by volunteers, who operate the trains and maintain the railway and its infrastructure.
In 2014, Russell , the only steam locomotive to survive from the original WHR, returned to service after a major overhaul costing about £250,000[ citation needed ]. Russell had been out of service since 2003.
The railway currently operates trains from March to November from their main station, which is located opposite the Network Rail station in Porthmadog on Tremadog Road. Trains run for 1-mile (1.6 km) to Pen-y-Mount Junction, where the railway connects with the WHR mainline. On the return journey, the train stops at Gelert's Farm halt, allowing passengers to visit the museum and a 7+1⁄4 in (184 mm) gauge miniature railway.
In 2007 and 2008, an additional short section of line was in use between Pen-y-Mount Junction and Traeth Mawr Loop. This line was built as part of an agreement signed in 1998 with the Ffestiniog Railway and allowed WHR Ltd. to run on the original Welsh Highland Railway trackbed for the first time. As part of the agreement, the section closed and became a construction site when the Ffestiniog Railway-constructed WHR mainline from Caernarvon was connected in 2008.
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The Ffestiniog Railway is a heritage railway based on 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park.
The Welsh Highland Railway is a 25-mile (40.2 km) long, restored 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow gauge heritage railway in the Welsh county of Gwynedd, operating from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passing through a number of popular tourist destinations including Beddgelert and the Aberglaslyn Pass. At Porthmadog it connects with the Ffestiniog Railway and to the short Welsh Highland Heritage Railway. In Porthmadog it uses the United Kingdom's only mixed gauge flat rail crossing.
The North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways (NWNGR) was a railway company that planned to build a number of inter-connected 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow-gauge railways across North Wales. The first two of these lines – jointly known as the "Moel Tryfan Undertaking" – were authorised by act of Parliament, the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways Act 1872 and were built and opened in the 1870s. The original main line ran from Dinas Junction to Bryngwyn and opened in 1877. The second line was a branch from Tryfan Junction to South Snowdon, though shortly after opening, the company designated the Tryfan Junction to Bryngwyn section as the branch, and the Dinas Junction to South Snowdon section as the main line.
Traeth Mawr is a polder near Porthmadog in Gwynedd in Wales. The area was formerly the large tidal estuary of the Afon Glaslyn. It was created after large-scale land reclamation occurred in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A large embankment, called the Cob, separates the area from the sea and carries a road and railway line.
The Croesor Tramway was a Welsh, 2 ft narrow gauge railway line built to carry slate from the Croesor slate mines to Porthmadog. It was built in 1864 without an Act of Parliament and was operated using horse power.
Russell is a narrow gauge steam locomotive originally built in 1906 for the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways (NWNGR), but most famously associated with the original Welsh Highland Railway (WHR), and now based at the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway in Porthmadog.
The Porthmadog cross town link is a section of the 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow gauge Welsh Highland Railway, specifically built to link with the Ffestiniog Railway in Porthmadog, and runs along partly what was called the Junction Railway, previously existing as part of the original Welsh Highland Railway. This had been removed some time after that railway closed in 1936.
Blaenau Ffestiniog railway station serves the slate mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales, and is the passenger terminus of the Conwy Valley Line from Llandudno Junction. Transport for Wales Rail operate through services to Llandudno Junction and Llandudno. The station is a joint station with the narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway, which operates primarily tourist passenger services to Porthmadog throughout most of the year. A feature of the standard gauge service is the availability on trains and buses of the popular "Gwynedd Red Rover" day ticket.
Minffordd railway station is a pair of adjacent stations on separate lines in Gwynedd, Wales. The mainline station opened as Minfford Junction on 1 August 1872 at the point where the then recently built Aberystwith and Welsh Coast Railway line from Dovey Junction to Pwllheli passes under the earlier narrow gauge Ffestiniog Railway. The latter was built in 1836 to carry dressed slate from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog for export by sea, and had carried passengers from 1865 onwards. The station was renamed Minffordd in 1890.
Porthmadog Harbour railway station in Porthmadog, Gwynedd, North Wales. It is the passenger terminus of two narrow gauge railways: the Ffestiniog Railway, which was opened in 1836 to carry dressed slate from the Quarries around Blaenau Ffestiniog to the sea port of Porthmadog, for export by sea; and the Welsh Highland Railway, incorporated in 1923, which ran to Dinas. After rebuilding in 1997-2011, the other terminus is at Caernarfon, in sight of the Castle.
Rhyd Ddu is a station on the narrow gauge Welsh Highland Railway, which was built in 1881 as the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways Moel Tryfan Undertaking to carry dressed slate to Dinas Junction on the LNWR. It has also previously been named both "Snowdon" and "South Snowdon".
Pont Croesor is a railway halt in Wales, on the Welsh Highland Railway, which runs through the Snowdonia National Park from Caernarfon to Porthmadog. It is located on the section between the stations of Hafod y Llyn and Pen-y-Mount Junction.
Pen-y-Mount Junction station is the northern terminus of the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway (WHHR) in Porthmadog, Wales. With the opening of all three platforms, it has the most of any station in the Porthmadog area.
Gelert's Farm Works is the operating centre for the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway (WHHR). It is located in Porthmadog, Wales, and was, as the name suggests, a working farm.
The Gorseddau Tramway was a 3 ft narrow gauge railway built in Wales in 1856 to link the slate quarries around Gorseddau with the wharves at Porthmadog. It was an early forerunner of the Gorseddau Junction and Portmadoc Railway and subsequently the Welsh Highland Railway.
Traeth Mawr Loop was a short-lived terminus during the restoration of the Welsh Highland Railway (WHR). The run-around loop was located within Traeth Mawr just the north of Porthmadog, Wales. It operated during 2007 before being replaced by the new mainline a year later.
The restoration of the Welsh Highland Railway has a colourful and complex history. This article provides the modern history.
Moel Tryfan was a narrow gauge steam locomotive built for use on the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways (NWNGRs) in 1874/5. The locomotive was an 0-6-4T single Fairlie locomotive built by the Vulcan Foundry near Manchester. It spent its entire working life on the NWNGRs and its successors the Welsh Highland Railway (WHR) and the Ffestiniog Railway (FfR).
Hafod y Llyn is a halt in North Wales on the Welsh Highland Railway, located between Beddgelert and Pont Croesor. It had been a halt, with a siding for a period on the original WHR, and a temporary terminus during the rebuilding of the line.
52°55′54″N4°07′37″W / 52.931656°N 4.126984°W