Welsh Highland Railway

Welsh Highland Railway
A train behind Garratt locomotive 138 in Rhyd Ddu
Historical route from Dinas to Porthmadog
Route length:	40 km
Gauge :	597 mm ( narrow gauge )
Legend Caernarfon Bontnewydd Dinas Tryfan Junction Waunfawr Plas y Nant Snowdon Ranger Rhyd Ddu Millions (Forest Campsite) Beddgelert Nantmor Pont Croesor Connection to the main line of the WHHR Pen-y-mount Gelert's Farm Porthmadog WHHR Pwllheli – Aberystwyth railway line Porthmadog Harbor Station Ffestiniog Railway to Blaenau Ffestiniog

The Welsh Highland Railway (WHR) is a narrow-gauge railway with an exact gauge of 1 ft 11½ in (597 mm), and in accordance with concession having a nominal track width of 1 ft 11 5/8 in (600 mm) in Welsh County Gwynedd , United Kingdom . The line from Dinas to Porthmadog , which was completed in 1923 and closed again in 1937 , has been rebuilt since 1994 with EU funds and subsidies from the state lottery ( Millennium Commission ) or expanded to include a former standard gauge section between Caernarfon and Dinas.

history

LNWR and NWNGR trains at Dinas station (1883)

The Welsh Highland Railway was created through the merger of three older railway companies:

• The Croesor Tramway connected the slate quarries near the village of Croesor with Porthmadog as a horse-drawn tram since 1863.
• The North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways (NWNGR) opened the line from Dinas Junction to Rhyd Ddu southwest of Snowdon in 1877 .
• The Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway (PBSSR) took over the Croesor Tramway in 1901 and began building the connection to Rhyd Ddu via Beddgelert in 1902; however, this was not completed due to legal problems and the beginning of the First World War.

On March 30, 1922, the Welsh Highland Railway was founded. It took over the NWNGR and PBSSR retrospectively to January 1, 1922. The connecting line was finished in early May 1923 and was officially opened on June 1, 1923 after test drives.

The company was in economic difficulties from the start. It could not pay dividends on its shares or interest on the bonds it issued. Therefore, in March 1927, a bankruptcy administrator was appointed. However, operations continued.

In 1934 the neighboring Ffestiniog Railway leased the WHR for 42 years. The attempt to make the route more attractive for tourists, however, failed. The last passenger train ran in September 1936, and in February 1937 the traffic ceased entirely. The lease of the Ffestiniog Railway ended on November 4, 1942 by a court ruling.

reconstruction

Track construction at Dinas, July 2000

Newly laid sleepers in Tunnel 4 at the Aberglaslyn Pass

Efforts were made to rebuild the Welsh Highland Railway as early as the 1960s, which led to the establishment of the Welsh Highland Light Railway (1964) Co Ltd (later renamed Welsh Highland Railway Ltd ). This company built a storage hall and workshop in Porthmadog for their vehicle collection and a short distance as the base of operations for this project.

In the course of the reconstruction projects of the WHR, the Ffestiniog Railway worked at times out of fear of competition against the reconstruction of the Welsh Highland Railway. In 1990 it became known that the Ffestiniog Railway had submitted an anonymous bid for the route to the bankruptcy administrator in the 1980s; this, as later published correspondence shows, apparently with the aim of preventing the rebuilding of the railway.

A few years later, concerns about competition had apparently given way to another long narrow-gauge railway in the neighborhood. The Ffestiniog Railway applied again in 1994 and this time successfully for the line, but now with the express goal of rebuilding the line from Caernarfon. This decision, which was also highly controversial politically, led to a tense situation between the two societies. At the end of 1997, an agreement was reached between the Ffestiniog Railway as the takeover of the WHR route and the Welsh Highland Railway Ltd. Among other things, it was determined that the Welsh Highland Railway Ltd. with their trains should also use the route taken over by the Ffestiniog Railway from the old WHR. So far, the two organizations have not yet been able to agree on all the details regarding the implementation of this point of the contract. In 2009 an out-of-court dispute settlement procedure was in progress.

Between 1997 and 2004, the first sections of the Welsh Highland Railway (Caernarfon) were opened by the Ffestinog Railway Company from Caernarfon . In the Porthmadog area, the company began construction work in 1964, now called the Welsh Highland Railway (Porthmadog) to better distinguish it from operations in Caernarfon . The merger with the Ffestiniog Railway was celebrated at Porthmadog's port station in February 2009, and the line opened for through passenger trains in 2011. After the opening of the continuous route, the WHR is now also used to develop traffic in the Snowdonia National Park .

The train today

Train with Garratt NGG 143 in Rhyd Ddu station

The Ffestiniog Railway operates its own classic route from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog as well as the rebuilt WHR from Caernarfon to Porthmadog. In 2013 and 2014, the port station in Porthmadog was expanded and separate platforms were built for both railways.

The Welsh Highland Railway (Porthmadog) has now been renamed the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway (WHHR) and operates a railway museum in Porthmadog and a short section of its own parallel to the WHR route. At its northern end there is a connection between the two railways that is used on special occasions.

vehicles

One of the reasons why the Welsh Highland Railway is of great interest to railway enthusiasts is that it has six examples of the Garratt articulated design that is rarely used in Europe . In addition to five locomotives of the class NGG 16 of the South African Railways - of which three are operational and one is being refurbished (as of 2019) - there is also the K1 locomotive of the Tasmanian Government Railways , the first locomotive of this type to be built, on the WHR.

In addition, WHR owns two machines of the SAR class NG 15 , also from South Africa and built in Belgium , one of which is being worked on as a long-term project, mainly by volunteers. Locomotives from the Ffestiniog Railway are used on special occasions as well as guest locomotives. In addition to steam operation, several diesel locomotives are in use on the WHR for off-peak times and construction train services.

The Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, which sees itself as the guardian of the historical legacy of the old WHR, owns several steam locomotives, which also come from different states of the Commonwealth of Nations , as well as the Russell tank locomotive . The 1'C1 'machine is the last original locomotive of the old WHR still in existence.

• 

  Garratt steam locomotive NGG 87 and Double-Fairlie Merddin Emrys in the port station of Porthmadog

• 

  Garratt steam locomotive NGG 143

• 

  Tasmanian Great Garratt K1

• 

  Last existing original Russell locomotive

• 

  Train with Castell Caernarfon diesel locomotive in Waunfawr station

Others

Both railway companies are members of the Great Little Trains of Wales .

literature

• James IC Boyd: Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caernarvonshire , Volume 1. The Oakwood Press, ISBN 0-85361-365-6 .
• James IC Boyd: Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caernarvonshire , Volume 2. The Oakwood Press, ISBN 0-85361-383-4 .
• Peter Johnson: An illustrated history of the Welsh Highland Railway . Revised and expanded 2nd edition. Oxford Publishing Co., 2009, ISBN 978-0-86093-626-8
• Peter Johnson: Rebuilding the Welsh Highland Railway - Britain's longest heritage line . Pen & Sword, Barnsley 2018, ISBN 978-1-4738-2727-1 .
• Gordon Rushton: Welsh Highland Railway Renaissance . Adlestrop Press, Milton Keynes 2012, ISBN 978-0-9571456-0-3

Web links

Commons : Welsh Highland Railway  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Welsh Highland Heritage Railway  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways
• Welsh Highland Heritage Railway
• Official website of the reconstruction project "The Welsh Highland Railway Project"
• Unofficial Welsh Highland Railway Construction Site
• The Welsh Highland Railway Order 1999 concession in full text (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Welsh Highland Railway Order 1999 - part V: Operation of railways. legislation.gov.uk, accessed March 24, 2012 . 
2. ↑ WHR Confidential Letters
3. ↑ Understanding reached on 30th November 1997 between representatives of Ffestiniog Railway Company and Welsh Highland Railway Ltd. at Porthmadog Harbor Station. Retrieved October 28, 2013 . 
4. ↑ Heritage Railway , Issue 128, September 2009, p. 6
5. ↑ The Restoration of NG15 Class Locomotive №134. Retrieved March 24, 2012 . 

Coordinates: 53 ° 2 ′  N , 4 ° 8 ′  W