In the summer of 2022, the Welsh Highland Railway of Dinas, Wales is operating a variety of excursions throughout the week. Sunday through Thursday, the “Glaslyn Venturer” and “Gelert Explorer” trains run to the picturesque village of Beddgelert from Porthmadog and Caernarfon respectively. On Friday and Saturday, the trains run the full length of line as “The Harbourmaster” and the “Snowdonia Star” from Porthmadog to Caernarfon and return or vice-versa. All of these excursions are pulled by one of their fleet of NG/G16 class 2-6-2+2-6-2 Garratt locomotives that once worked the narrow gauge railways of South Africa. After a brief visit to Caernarfon to see Garratt no. 87 arrive and depart in the shadow of Edward I’s mighty 13th-Century fortress, the video follows no. 130 out of Porthmadog and through the Aberglaslyn Pass before climbing deep into Snowdonia National Park to Rhyd Ddu, where it meets the train from Caernarfon. We then follow 87 back down through the Aberglaslyn and across the Traeth Mawr before arriving back at Porthmadog harbor, where the Welsh Highland train would share the station with two Ffestiniog Railway trains.
The Welsh Highland Railway has a long and complex history. It began as the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways in 1877, a 2ft gauge line connecting the slate quarries of Moel Tryfan to the standard gauge London & Northwestern Railway at Dinas, near Caernarfon. Inspired by the success of the Fairlie locomotives on the nearby Ffestiniog Railway, a fleet of 0-6-4T Single Fairlies were purchased to work the line. In 1881, a branch line was opened to South Snowdon (now Rhyd Ddu) with intentions to extend farther to the village of Beddgelert. Meanwhile, the Porthmadog, Beddgelert, and South Snowdon Railway was being proposed as an electric railway to bring slate from quarries near Beddgelert to the harbor at Porthmadog. Ten electric locomotives were purchased, but the idea was dropped when construction began in 1906 and the 2-6-2T steam engine "Russell" was ordered from Hunslet. After completing the tunnels through the Aberglaslyn Pass, construction of the PBSSR was halted and the line sat mostly abandoned for several years. After World War I, the NWNGR was struggling financially and on the verge of closure and in 1922 the two railways were combined into the Welsh Highland Railway. Work began on refurbishing the lines and finishing the construction to connect them, with the full line from Dinas to Porthmadog opening in June 1923. Unfortunately, the interwar years found the slate industry in terminal decline and the line could not compete with buses for passenger service. After only ten years of operation the line was closed in 1933. The Ffestiniog Railway leased the line in 1934, but had no better luck and ran the last train over the railway in 1937. The rails were torn up in 1941 and the WHR's story seemed to be over. However, in the 1960s a group of volunteers established Welsh Highland Light Railway (1964) Ltd. with the intention of rebuilding the line as a heritage railway. Their efforts were stymied by the complicated legal status of the technically-not-abandoned right of way, and I won't even try to cover the decades-long fight over who would eventually build the line here - it lead to one of the longest court battles in the history of Britain. Ultimately ownership of the WHR would be granted to the Ffestiniog Railway, and they built and opened the first segment of the line in 1997. To operate this new railway they would need larger locomotives than the Ffestiniog had, and so a number of recently retired NG/G16 class Garratt locomotives were imported from South Africa, along with two NG15 2-8-2s and Tasmanian Government Railways K1, the first Garratt locomotive ever built. Reconstruction of the railway was completed in 2011 and for the last ten years it has been busier than ever with long trainloads of tourists coming to see the majestic sights of Snowdonia.
26 авг 2024
