Festiniog Railway

The Festiniog railway begins in the harbor of Porthmadog, near the shale jetties located on the Madog peninsula ( Ynys Madog ). Here is located the southernmost station of the line - Porthmadog Harbor railway station , which now represents a dead-end passenger station, used by both Festiniogskaya and Welsh upland railways. From Porthmadog, the path goes along the highway to the east - along a high dam, called here “The Cob” ( block ). To the south of the dam is Tremadok Bay , to the north - an impressive size polder Great Sands ( Traeth Mawr ).

Porthmadog Port Station

Immediately after the dam is the station “Boston Lodge” ( Boston Lodge ), near which are located the workshops of the Festiniog road and its depot. Here the road turns to the northeast and goes to Minfort , where it crosses the Cambrian line of the normal, Stefenson , gauge, owned by Arriva Trains Wales, on the bridge. At the intersection there is a transfer station, from which the line runs to the village of Penrinduidright , where it stops at the platform with the name “Penrin” ( Penrhyn ), somewhat shortened in 1870. At one and a half kilometers past Penrino, a Riw-Goch junction is arranged on the road, from 1836 to 1863. horses were changed when the Festiniog road worked on horse-drawn rails. Here, on the farm, the horses were left to rest for the night. Departure operates exclusively in the office mode, and the boarding of passengers on it is not allowed.

Behind the junction, the line begins to wind between the wooded hills until it goes to the Plas Halt platform, which in 1963 replaced the private station with the similar name Plas station, which was located nearby. From the platform, there is a walking path to the Plas Tan-y-Bwlch estate , where the training center of the Snowdonia National Park is now located. Then the path continues to go between the hills, skirting Lake Llyn-Mayr ( Lake Meri ) from the west, and stops at the Tan-y-Bwlch station, a junction located approximately halfway between Portmadog and Blynay Festiniog , and replacing in 1873 the former, equestrian, traveling "Havod-i-Llyn" ( Hafod-y-Llyn ).

One by one, private stopping points follow: "Blytiai Forest" ( Coed-y-Bleiddiau ) and Campbell's Platform ( Campbell's Platform ). Not far from the first is an old cottage , in which from the 1860s. lived inspectors Festiniogskaya road. From the middle of the 20th century The cottage is the resting place of a few selected families, including the British family of Soviet intelligence officer Kim Philby . ^{[4] The} second stopping point is located near the feudal estate of the XV century. - Plas Dduallt, who served Oliver Cromwell during his campaign against the royalists of North Wales. ^[five]

Passing the private platforms, the line goes to the station “Tialt” ( Dduallt ), immediately after which the former and current directions of the road diverge. The former direction with the removed track leads the way to an abandoned and now half-flooded tunnel opening directly into the Tan-i-Grissiai reservoir, a new one — wraps up the path with a loop, leads the bridge over the entrance arrows and sends to the newer, shorter tunnel arranged west of the old one. Behind the tunnel, the line follows the bank of the named reservoir, leaving it along with the building of the power station on the right hand, and enters the village of Tan-i-Grisiai . The station in the village is located across the road from the reservoir, trains stop at it only on request.

The last stretch of the line goes along the highway to Blainay-Festiniog. Just before the entrance to the city, the branch departs to the now-inoperative Dinas station ( Dinas ), while the line itself — parallel to the “Konuinsky Valley Railway”, connecting to the North-Welsh Coastal Railway in Llandudno — arrives at the station Blainay-Festiniog. The station is a transfer station: the rails of the narrow and Stefenson gauge are laid next to each other, the platforms are connected by a pedestrian bridge. There are no further trains, although there is a path behind the station to the closed Duffws station and there was a movement to the quarries north-east of the city before.

The history of the Festiniog road began in 1829, when its future director, Henry Archer, by chance met with the owner of one of the oil shale quarries located near Blainay Festiniog, Samuel Holland, who proposed the idea of ​​building the line. ^[6] Archer, together with James Spooner ( James Spooner ), after whom one of the locomotives of the road was later named, took up the project, investing in it both his own money and funds raised on the Dublin Stock Exchange. His efforts on May 23, 1832 adopted the Parliamentary Act on the establishment of the Festiniog Railway, and on February 26 of the next, 1833, construction work began in Porthmadog.

Horse traction

Erected the road for three years and finished building in 1836. Geodesic works made by Spooner allowed the line to be drawn in such a way that trains loaded with slate descended from Festinioga to Porthmadog under the influence of their own weight. Two trolleys in each of the six plying trains were equipped with brake pads, where the conductors were on duty, whose duties were to slow down the train when entering the traveling stations. The descent to the last in front of the port of the station “Boston Lodge” took from 90 minutes to two hours, then the train followed the horse traction . The horse was raised back to Festiniog, having previously divided into several sections of 8 trolleys in each. The rise took about six hours. Upstairs, horses were loaded into a specialized carriage, called “ dandy ” on British roads, and rolled down, hooking a dandy car to the newly composed train.

There were three departure stations at that time: Tunnel Halt , Havod-i-Llyn and Rio Goks, each of which was 10 minutes long. The first two of these stations do not exist now: the Tunnel Station in the tunnel below the Moyluin-Maura ceased to function due to the transfer of the route to a new location, and the Havod-i-Llyn junction was replaced in 1872 by “ Tang-i-Bulks. At the same time, the toponym "Havod-i-Llin" is preserved in the name of the junction of the Welsh upland railway , located about 16 km north-east of the former station.

Six horse-drawn trains provided for the export of 70 thousand tons of slate per year. ^{[7] The} transportation of passengers was not allowed by the Board of Trade , for the latter believed that only roads with a normal, Stefensson , gauge could provide sufficient safety for people. Despite the ban, tourists from the early 1850s. from time to time the road was still transported.

Steam train

Being provided with transport, shale pits increased production, and by the 50th. Festiniogskaya road no longer cope with the export of raw materials. The road board was concerned about possible competition from both the Stefenson gauge railways, the number of which grew rapidly in Wales, and the narrow-gauge lines that arose near Porthmadog. The then-dear Charles Spooner ( Charles E. Spooner , the youngest son of James Spooner) then directed the engineer Charles Holland ( Charles M. Holland , Samuel Holland's nephew) to develop a locomotive suitable for the line. The task was complicated by the fact that authorities in the field of locomotive engineering, such as Robert Stephenson , considered the creation of efficient locomotives for narrow gauge railways impossible. Holland, however, took up the assignment and, after several failures, drafted a two-axle tender steam locomotive, which in 1863 was built at George England ’s factories in two copies. One of them is the “Princess” steam locomotive, which has survived to the present day, but is not in working condition.

Biaxial locomotives arrived on the line in batches of two. The second batch came the next year, 1864, the third - in 1867. The locomotives replaced the horses when trolleys were lifted to Festiniog, back to Porthmadog, the trains continued to go without locomotives - under the influence of gravity. Meanwhile, in 1865, narrow-gauge roads were allowed to transport people and trains began to form freight and passenger. At the same time, they observed a certain sequence: they were the first to attach ordinary freight cars to the locomotive, behind them were passenger cars, and at the end they put shale trolleys at the end. The locomotive pulled the train up entirely, then - near Festinioga - the train was divided into parts, loaded, and after that each of the parts was rolled down separately. The last locomotive went down to Porthmadog.

Now, the journey in both directions took 1 hour and 50 minutes, including stops at three journeys: “Tan-i-Grisiyay”, “Havod-i-Llin” and “Penrin” - with a total duration of 20 minutes. Trains began to depart from both end stations at two-hour intervals. However, the system, which required constant shunting work , turned out to be too complicated and soon the transport of shale was separated from the rest of the movement. Shale trolleys, which had been consolidated into a separate train, continued to roll down under the influence of gravity - and so it continued until 1939 - and from the rest of the cars, freight and passenger trains were formed, which drove locomotives down and up.

By 1869 the carrying capacity of the Festiniogskaya road became unsatisfactory again. Weakly biaxial locomotives could not pull out too long trains, and the single track of the line did not allow changing the schedule. The project of the device of the second way was rejected as too expensive, and they relied on more powerful locomotives. George England’s son-in-law, Robert Furley , built a locomotive of his own design for the road in 1869 (see Ferly System Locomotive ), called, without undue modesty, “ Little Wonder ”.

Symmetrical articulated tank-locomotive liked the board of the road. The demonstration competitions between the “Little Miracle” and the former Ingland locomotives, held in several stages from September 1869 to July 1870, made it possible to verify the undoubted merits of the new locomotive and make it a worldwide advertisement. At the February 1870 stage, representatives of Russian railways were present, ^[8] who were not slow in ordering a batch of similar steam locomotives for Russia, thereby initiating a series of domestic steam locomotives F. The Furley steam locomotives, both double and single , worked on the line until 1933, then were suspended from train service, but with the reconstruction of the Festiniog road they were again taken to work, which continues to this day.

In 1872, new passenger cars appeared on the road. The old ones were small and biaxial, the new ones were four-axle and much more capacious. These were the first passenger cars in the world, the crew part of which consisted of two carriages attached to a metal frame on which the carriage box itself was installed. ^[9] Since 1891, the Festiniogskaya Road began postal transportation, for which its own postal service was established, which continues to operate to this day.

By 1900, the timetable was even more condensed: nine pairs of trains were sent daily. The average speed has increased and now the trains overcame the distance from Porthmadog to Diffus train station, which was located one kilometer northeast of Blineay-Festinioga, in one hour. At that time, also included stops at Minfort, Penrin, Tan-i-Bulks, Tialt stations (upon request), Tan-i-Grissiai, and two stations Blaynay-Festiniog: both - with transfer on line with stafensonovskoy track. This kind of intensity was made possible by the installation of Westinghouse brakes on the rolling stock of the road in 1893 and the commissioning of a new signaling system.

Decline of the road and its closure

With the beginning of the First World War, the Festiniog Railway began to experience difficulties. Overseas trade - including shale - was disrupted, and in the internal transport of this commodity there was a strong competition from the “ Big Western Road ”. The situation has not changed with the end of the war, for new finishing materials have appeared. Passenger traffic did not bring the expected income, as the tourist attraction of Wales remained low.

Under these conditions, a controlling stake in the road was purchased in 1921 by an aluminum corporation located in Dolgarrog . Back in 1918, the corporation acquired North Wales Power & Traction Co., which was engaged in electrification of railways in Wales, and gradually bought up all the surrounding narrow-gauge lines, becoming the largest passenger carrier in the region. Passenger traffic was supposed to be developed in every possible way, translating traffic into electric traction . Two of the acquired railways: Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway and North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways, were merged into the Welsh Upland Railway in 1922 and connected to the Festiniog Railway by a connecting branch in Porthmadog. In 1923, Golman Stevens ( Holman Fred Stephens ) became the manager of the Festiniogskaya and Valiyskaya roads, but the passenger movement did not bring expected income even in the following year, in 1924, the aluminum corporation closed its railway project, having got rid of all the lines belonging to it.

The position of the Welsh Road continued to deteriorate, and even Stevens, being a well - known crisis manager , ^[10] failed to save her from bankruptcy in 1933. The Festiniog road tried to help the sister company by renting it out , but in 1937 was forced to give up the lease due to increasing losses, and the Welsh road was closed.

Passenger traffic on the Festiniog road continued to exist until September 15, 1939. On this day — two weeks after the start of World War II — the last passenger train of general use passed along the line, and the next — the last service train with passenger-workers. Freight trains with slate continued to run until August 1, 1946, after which the traffic on the road ceased completely, with the exception of a small section adjacent to Blineay-Festiniog: from Diffus to a quarry in the northeast. The site was leased by a pit owner in October of the same 1946 and allowed the company to avoid a formal closure, the procedure of which was not specified in the initial Parliamentary Act.

The unworked line gradually fell into decay and was plundered - including by “souvenir lovers”. But since 1949, the reverse movement began: lovers of railways, especially Birmingham , began to talk and write about the need to preserve narrow-gauge lines in Wales, including the Festiniogskaya line. ^[11] In 1951, when the Talillinsky Railway was the first of the Welsh roads to change owners and began to be restored, a meeting of railway enthusiasts took place in Bristol regarding the revival of the Festinioga Road. Three years after that — June 24, 1954 — a group of volunteers led by Allan Pegler bought the Festiniog railway and announced its intention to revive the traffic on it, turning it into a tourist line.

This did not prevent the British Electricity Authority (BEA ) in the same 1954 decision to build the Festiniog hydropower station , in which part of the path of the Festiniog road was subject to flooding by the waters of the Tan-i-Grissiai reservoir. Between the road and BEA (later CEGB), litigation began that lasted 18 years and allowed the road to receive monetary and, in 1972, land compensation in accordance with the relevant Parliamentary Act.

On August 18, 1954, railroad inspector Colonel McMullen , accompanied by a new board led by Pegler, walked around and walked around the entire line, after which, on September 20, its restoration began: Morris Jones , the last the mechanics who worked on the former Festiniog road, with the help of two volunteers, began to restore the last of the steam locomotives working on the line, the “Prince”. The company's management at this time was carried out by its former manager Robert Evans ( Robert Evans ), on whose anniversary on November 6, 1954, the first train from Minfort to Porthmadog was timed to coincide. This staff was official - regular traffic opened between Porthmadog and Boston Lodge station only a year later, on July 23, 1955. By this time, Evans had retired and his place was taken by one of the volunteers who participated in the restoration of the Prince - Allan Garrow ( Allan Garraway ).

The road sections were opened for passenger traffic as they became ready: on May 19, 1956, the service was restored to Minforta, on June 5, 1957 - to Penrin, on April 5, 1958 - to Tan-i-Bulks, then - a break of 10 years, and April 6, 1968 - to Tialt. The same April 6, the road postal service was restored. At the same time, the rolling stock was repaired and put into operation: following the “Prince”, who started the train service in August 1955, in September 1956, the double Furley “Livingston Thompson”, which was restored after the restoration, was repaired , ^{[12 ]} behind him in 1961 another double Furley came out of repair - the oldest one - “Mertin Emrys” ( Merddin Emrys ), ^[13] in 1963 the road acquired two mining locomotives: “Linda” and “Blanch” ( Blanche ), and in 1965 and 1967. respectively: "Britomart" and " Mountaineer ".

The greatest difficulty was caused by the reconstruction of the northernmost sections of the road: from Tialta to Tan-i-Grisiaia, and then to Blainei-Festinioga. For Tialt I had to change the track profile, raising the line to a new tunnel, located somewhat higher than the previous one. For this, we had to arrange a loop with a bridge over the station and build an embankment. The tunnel was punched in the granite stratum by explosions and strengthened its vault with syringe-concreting from 1975 to 1977. led by three mining engineers from Cornwall . On June 25, 1977, the now not existing “Llyn Ystradau” junction (on the other side of the ridge) , where passengers were not allowed to disembark, was not the existing terminal, because it was located on the territory of the hydropower station, and exactly one year later, on June 24, 1978 y., the trains went to Tan-and-Grisiai.

The section to Blainay-Festinioga demanded the restoration of many bridges, and most importantly, the arrangement of a single station with the British Railways , which should have been built instead of two interchange stations that existed before. The work took four years, and in March 1982, the station was opened for trains of the Stefenson gauge, and on May 25, 1982, exactly 150 years after the adoption of the parliamentary act on the Festiniog road, for trains of this line. The official opening, with the participation of the Speaker of the House of Commons , had to wait another year - until April 30, 1983.

Restoration of the line required large investments that demanded compensation, but when tourist trains finally began to make a profit, the Festiniog road faced the possibility of competition from the beginning of the revival of the Welsh upland road . The Welsh road, also starting in Porthmadog, was officially closed in 1937, dismantled in 1941 to meet military needs, and in 1964 became the subject of interest of the newly formed company Welsh Highland Light Railway Ltd. - WHLR Ltd. ( Light Upland Welsh Railway Ltd. ), later - WHR Ltd. The company constantly faced difficulties in acquiring rights to a closed line and could not begin the restoration. By 1980, she was able to build a small section 1.6 km long and open traffic on it, but this was not a reconstruction, because the erected line was never part of the original Welsh upland road.

WHR Ltd. supported by the Gwynedd County Council in its desire to recreate the road. She was opposed by the Bankruptcy Service Agency, which cared about the interests of the holders of the debt of the Welsh line and wanted to sell the land profitably - for the construction of the walking and cycling paths of Snowdonia Park. The Festiniog road interfered in the conflict of interests in 1988, anonymously offering to buy land from the Agency and hand it over to the Council with the condition not to repair the railway on it. ^[14]

The agency, however, was inclined to direct the transfer of land to the County Council, as a state, and therefore more reliable structure. Then the Festiniogskaya road changed its approach to the problem and, seeing the impossibility of destroying a competitor, decided to devour it, putting forward a project to fully restore the Welsh road, but as part of its own structure.

Earlier, in 1983, part of the WHR Ltd. managers, faced with the inability of their company to revive the railway, formed Trackbed Consolidation Ltd. (TCL), which hoped to find another way to restore the line. TCL and its affiliate, WestCo ( Western Consortium ) decided to accumulate at least 75% of the debt obligations and shares of the Welsh Road, which would allow them to start work on the road without looking at other structures and companies. Accumulation failed, because the largest debt holder, the Ministry of Transport (42%), refused to sell them. In this situation, the project of the Festiniogskaya road turned out to be very opportunely - it had enough money and TCL with WestCo, transferring to it already accumulated debt obligations and shares, acquired in her person a reliable contractor for the restoration work and the same reliable manager.

Since the securities of the Festiniogskaya Road were still not enough to become the majority shareholder of the Welsh line and begin its reconstruction, in 1991 the case was transferred to the High Court of the United Kingdom in order to determine the company-re-constructor. In court, the Festiniog Road was opposed by the WHR Ltd. and the Gwynedd County Council. After three years of trials, in 1994, the Welsh road was transferred to Festiniog, because the judge had doubts that WHR Ltd. will make the reconstruction in good faith and in full.

In 1998, between the Festiniog road and the WHR Ltd. An agreement was signed ^[15] whereby WHR Ltd. received the right to participate in the reconstruction of the Welsh line and use part of its way to move their trains. The agreement also defined the names of the sections of the line to be restored: “Welsh Upland Railway (Porthmadog)” - for the section belonging to WHR Ltd., and “Welsh Upland Railway (Carnarvon)” - for the section belonging to the Festiniog Road.

At present, the reconstruction of the Welsh road continues with the intention to start through traffic by mid-2011. On already opened sections, train work is carried out by the locomotives of both the Welsh and Festiniog roads.

At present, the company continues to carry out the movement of tourist trains between the stations “Blineay-Festiniog” and “Porthmadogskaya Portovaya”. Apart from the transportation of individual tourists and tourist groups, when passenger traffic on the road was still banned, it was first declared a tourist object in 1876: this year the London and North Western Railway mentioned about the line in your guidebook. The text was accompanied by a drawing, where a lady in a Welsh national costume rides the train accompanied by two conductors of the Festiniog road. Empty slate trolleys are visible in the background.

In 1964, the Welsh Tourism Commission issued a certificate to the company confirming its tourist status, ^[16] and is now “driving” the road to the market according to the Great Little Trains of Wales marketing scheme. ^[17]

The company acquires rare rolling stock, restores it at its depot near the Boston Lodge station and adapts it to traffic on the line. The main part of the park consists of narrow-gauge steam locomotives of various years of release, but for official work the road prefers to use small diesel locomotives , some of which can also be considered rare. In addition to the purchase and restoration of equipment, the company itself builds steam locomotives, which is done in the same depot “Boston Lodge”. One of the last locomotives built there is “David Lloyd George” - a double Furley with oil heating, released from the gate in 1992. ^[18]

The budget of the company is only part of the income received from passenger traffic. A significant proportion of it consists of various kinds of donations and grants received from commercial, public and state organizations. ^[nineteen]

• Postal Service "Festiniog Railway"
• Ferly steam locomotive
• Welsh Upland Railway
• Kroizor tram
• Gorsetay tram
• Great narrow gauge railway of Wales

• Boyd, James IC The Festiniog Railway 1800-1974; Vol. 1 - History and Route. - Blandford: The Oakwood Press, 1975. ISBN 0-8536-1167-X .

• Boyd, James IC The Festiniog Railway 1800-1974; Vol. 2 - Locomotives and Rolling Stock; Quarries and Branches: Rebirth 1954-74. - Blandford: The Oakwood Press, 1975. ISBN 0-8536-1168-8 .