Slate Operations on the WHR

The original Welsh Highland Railway (WHR) owed its existence to the the narrow gauge railways/tramways built to serve commercial slate traffic from Slate Quarries and other mineral extraction operations.

* Croesor Tramway, this was built to take slate traffic from the Croesor and New Rhosydd quarries/mines. 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 section of WHR track due for re-opening in 2009 between Pont Croesor and Porthmadog follows the original trackbed of the tramway.

* The North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway was built to serve the following quarries [http://whr.bangor.ac.uk/bryngwyn.htm] :
**The Alexandra Quarry Tramway
**Moel Tryfan Quarry
**Braich
**Y Fron and Cilgwyn

The railway was then extended by a branch from Tryfan Junction to connect with the Hafod-y-Wern quarry branch and Glanrafon where there sidings.

The NWNGR had originally built a RailGauge|1ft11.5in 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.

Although, as originally planned (1872), the line to Bryngwyn was the nominated main line, very early on a decision was made for the South Snowdon line to become the main line. By the time commercial operations started, it had been reclassified a branch

Main line: Dinas - Tryfan Junction - Waunfawr - Bettws Garmon - Snowdon Ranger - South Snowdon/Rhyd Ddu (approx. 9 miles).

Branch line: Tryfan Junction - Rhostryfan - Bryngwyn (approx. 2 miles). From Bryngwyn, an incline (owned by the railway company) lead (via quarry owned lines) to a number of slate quarries around Moel Tryfan mountain.

During the first world war timber was carried by the NWNGR from the Beddgelert Forest extension, one of the more recent proposals for the re-opened WHR is to again carry timber from the Forestry Commission operation in Beddgelert Forest where the line runs through [http://www.isengard.co.uk/] .

Welsh Highland Railway 1923

After the failure of the PBSSR the Welsh Highland Railway connected both former NWNGR and Croesor Tramway via Beddgelert in 1923, this enabled a connection with a mineral operation at Hafod-y-Llyn.

References