Welsh Highland Railway
The Welsh Highland Railway (WHR) is a narrow gauge railway in Wales, which originally ran from Dinas near Caernarfon to Porthmadog, with a branch line to Bryngwyn and the slate quarries at Moel Tryfan.
The main line is in the process of restoration as a heritage railway. As of 2008 two sections of the line are open, a 13 mile section Caernarfon to Rhyd Ddu which is operated by the Festiniog Railway Company and a 1 mile section at Porthmadog which is operated by Welsh Highland Railway Limited. The full line from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, originally planned to open at Easter 2009, is now due to open in stages, at Easter 2009, from Rhyd Ddu to Beddgelert, with the complete run opening in Mid May 2009.
The line opened to passengers in 1923 but was never a commercial success and went into receivership in 1927. The service however continued, operated by the Festiniog Railway Company under a newly-signed 42-year lease, but only survived until 1937. Thus the WHR managed only fourteen years of operation, and the longest narrow gauge railway in Wales closed. The track was lifted during scrap collections in World War II.
The restored line is known as both Rheilffordd Ucheldir Cymru and Rheilffordd Eryri in Welsh. Rheilffordd Ucheldir Cymru – Welsh Highland Railway – has been used since 1980 by the Company operating the Porthmadog end of the line. Rheilffordd Eryri – literally Snowdonia Railway – is a brand name used by the Caernarfon end. The original Welsh Highland never had an official Welsh translation of its name, despite running through the heartland of the Welsh language. Locals tended to refer to it by informal names such as Y Lein Bach or Lein Bach Beddgelert (the little Beddgelert railway).
The Welsh Highland Railway was formed in 1922 from the merger of two companies – the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways (NWNGR) and the Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway (PBSSR) (successor to the Portmadoc, Croesor and Beddgelert Tram Railway).
The Croesor tramway had run from Portmadoc since 1863 up into the Croesor Valley and the slate quarries in this area. This was a horse-worked line laid to a nominal 2 foot gauge.
The NWNGR had originally built a 1 ft 11½ in (597 mm) gauge line from a junction with the standard gauge London and North Western Railway line at Dinas to Bryngwyn with a branch from Tryfan Junction via Waunfawr to Llyn Cwellyn (Snowdon Ranger). The line was opened in 1877 and was extended to South Snowdon (Rhyd Ddu) in 1881, a total of 9 miles. This closed to passengers in 1916, but goods traffic continued up to its absorption by the WHR in 1922.
In 1902, the newly-formed PBSSR took over the failed Portmadoc, Croesor and Beddgelert Tram Railway with the aim of extending it to South Snowdon slate quarry in the Nant Gwynant Pass. Work was abandoned by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, although the tunnels through the Aberglaslyn Pass were mostly complete. By 1921, the NWNGR, the PBSSR, the Snowdon Mountain Railway and the Ffestiniog Railway were in common ownership and controlled by the owners of the Aluminium Corporation and the North Wales Power and Traction Company with headquarters at Dolgarrog.
In 1922 the order was made to create the Welsh Highland Railway (WHR), mainly funded by loans from the Ministry of Transport and Carnarvonshire County Council in the hope that it would help regenerate the area’s economy and keep struggling quarries open. McAlpine & Sons were contracted to refurbish the existing lines and complete the link between Rhyd Ddu and Croesor Junction, thus creating a railway that ran from Dinas to join the Ffestiniog Railway at Porthmadog and which was opened in 1923.
The WHR venture was not a success and the hoped-for revenue from quarry traffic never materialised. When these hopes were dashed, the railway turned to another market; tourism. The owners tried to attract visitors by opening the first narrow gauge buffet car and by painting their carriages bright colours, including yellow and blue. However, these ideas did not work because the early tourist industry did not provide sufficient visitors to make the railway pay, especially during the Depression. Competition from buses which ran a faster and more regular service from Caernarfon and Beddgelert also played a part.
The last passenger train ran on 5 September 1936 and the Welsh Highland Railway was formally closed on 1 June 1937. The majority of the track was removed for scrap during the Second World War. Various legal manoeuvres followed this, including a serious application to turn the route into a long-distance footpath. Although these plans were ultimately unfruitful, they ensured that the trackbed was kept mainly intact, rather than sold off bit by bit, which would have made restoration much more difficult and potentially expensive. However, some parts such as the sites of Rhyd Ddu and Dinas stations were sold off.
In 1961 a small group of railway enthusiasts, who had been inspired by the successful preservation of the Talyllyn Railway, formed the Welsh Highland Railway Society to preserve and restore the line. Construction of the line started in the 1970s following the acquisition of the old slate exchange sidings from British Railways[. Tourist passenger services started in 1980 and the first restoration of Russell was complete in 1987, with a second, and more complete restoration to 1906 condition, is scheduled to be completed in 2009.
Photo By Roy Norry
- Welsh Highland Railway (Porthmadog) – official site
- Welsh Highland Railway (Caernarfon) – official site
- Welsh Highland Railway (Caernarfon) – official construction site
- Rebuilding the Welsh Highland Railway – unofficial site – updated almost daily!
- The Pont Croesor Extension
- Festiniog Railway’s Heritage Group Wiki – contains further WHR information
- Welsh Highland Railway History
