Visited &
Rode : June '99Visited & Looked : May '01
Visited &
Rode : June '99
Visited & Looked : May '01
Their Website :- Ffestiniog Railway
In '99 a potentially great day was spoiled by chronic overcrowding. Daddy initially felt it deserved one of Daddy's Rants
In '01 we just visited and watched and were reminded how nice the trains are.
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Prince at Tan Y Bwlch |
Porthmadog : Main site. It has a curved platform allowing viewing of the shunting. The main building includes the ticket office, shop and cafe.
Blaenau Ffestiniog station is shared with British Rail, and is 'functional' with a medium sized car park. Ticket office (underneath a hotel) includes shop.
Tan y Bwlch is one of the main passing places. Has two long curved platforms, footbridge, small cafe and shop. It's in the middle of a lovely stretch of countryside which we drove too.
Spectacular scenery and civil engineering viewed from a cramped seat. One minute you are clinging to a mountain-side, the next you are passing a reservoir or going around the famous spiral at Ddaullt.
Carriages are very small because the track is so narrow, so things can get quite cramped.
Daddy can vouch for the fact that when they say "Don't lean out of the windows" because of the narrow clearance, they mean it. Luckily the video camera survived !
On both the way there and the way back, there wasn't a spare seat despite adding as many extra coaches as they could. We were worried about getting stuck at Porthmadog, so we caught an earlier train to be sure of getting home. This messed up up plans of what to do at Porthmadog, so we didn't get a chance to ride upon the West Highland Railway (Porthmadog).
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Linda at Porthmadog |
12 different narrow gauge engines seemed to be running when we went, though the numbers change as the get mended or break down. We were pulled to Porthmadog by the double ended Fairlie "David Lloyd George" and back to Blaenau Ffestiniog by "Linda". We passed the famous "Prince" who was resting at Boston Lodge, though we saw him pulling a train when we visited in '01.
Lots of special narrow coaches, some of which are quite old. They can't make them any bigger because of the narrow gaps between the rocks on the line. Accordingly they were rather cramped and not very comfortable because they were so full.
Situated at Boston Lodge. I didn't think you were allowed to look around, but a nice man who helps run the railway has since emailed me and said it is open at certain times of the year.
None.
Good sized shops at both Blaenau Ffestiniog and Porthmadog.
Small shop at Tan Y Bwlch.
Porthmadog has good selection of model trains as well.
On-board catering existed. Walking through the narrow coaches is hard, so let them come to you. They'd run out of chocolate chip cookies, but still had a Thomas juice drink.
Cafe exists at Porthmadog, which we didn't try.
Cafe exists at Tan Y Bwlch, which again we didn't try.
Only tried the ones at Porthmadog and Tan Y Bwlch, which were OK.
Excellent guide book pointing out all the things you can see from the train.
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This page was last updated on December 23, 2002