Bala Lake Railway
| Bala Lake-Llanuwchllyn | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 7.2 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : |
up to 1965: 1435 mm since 1984: 610 mm |
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The Bala Lake Railway ( Welsh : Rheilffordd Llyn Tegid ) is a museum railway on Bala Lake , in Gwynedd , North Wales . The railway runs on a 4½ miles (7.2 km) long route on the south bank of Lake Bala on a track width of 610 mm with mostly historical, over 100 year old locomotives.
history
The line was built on a section of the former Great Western Railway's Ruabon-Barmouth line , which was closed in 1965. The section lies on the southeastern shore of Lake Bala. Another section of the former line is now used as a standard gauge museum railway by the Llangollen Railway .
Museum railway operation
The trips of the museum train start at Llanuwchllyn station (the place name means church over the lake ). This is also where the locomotive sheds, workshops and the company's offices are located. The end point is Bala Lake Halt railway station at Bala . Apart from a pedestrian crossing, a siding and a small shelter, it has no infrastructure and is located a little outside of Bala. There are concrete plans to extend the railway into the town itself (as of 2018).
The steam locomotives that are over 100 years old are called MAID MARIAN , HOLY WAR and ALICE . They were all built by the Hunslet Engine Company and belong to the Alice Class . The railway company still owns a diesel locomotive called MERIONETH for passenger traffic .
On April 13, 2015, pop musician and railroad fan Pete Waterman put the WINIFRED steam locomotive back into operation on its 130th birthday after a three-year general overhaul. The locomotive of the Hunslet Engine Company in Leeds was previously used as a shunting locomotive in Porth Penrhyn and from 1955 in the Penrhyn Quarry . From there it was sold to the USA together with five other steam locomotives from this quarry in 1964. There it came into the possession of Tony Hullman , owner of a well-known Indy 500 racetrack race circuit, on which he originally exhibited it, after which it was stored for over 40 years until it could be purchased in 2012 and returned to Wales.
Others
The railway is a member of the Great Little Trains of Wales .
Web links
- Bala Lake Railway (English)
- Bala Lake Railway Trust (on the planned extension of the line, English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Bala Lake Railway bid to extend line to town. BBC News, May 4, 2014.
- ↑ Eryl Grump: Bala Lake Railway steaming ahead with more visitors in 2015. Daily Post, Trinity Mirror Merseyside, June 5, 2015.
Coordinates: 52 ° 52 ′ 48 " N , 3 ° 37 ′ 34" W.