Ffestiniog Railway – Driver’s Eye View – Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog (Wales)

We start at the slate mining town of Blaenau Ffestioniog – also known as “the town that roofed the world”. Loco No. 10 “Merddin Emrys” built in 1879 simmers at that platform end ready to haul the last train of the day on a glorious sunny evening. Our train traverses a narrow ledge cut into the hillside above the quarrymen’s cottages to Tanygrisiau, before passing the deep waters of Llyn Ystradau and plunging into the darkness of Moelwyn tunnel. The original track bed lies beneath the waters of Llyn Ystradau, today the line passes the lake on a new deviation between Tanygrisiau and Dduallt that includes a spiral formation allowing the new line to loose enough height to re-join the original route. Once again our little trains clings to the wooded slopes with occasional glimpses of the River Dwyryd far below, we pass the halfway point at Tan-y-Bwlch before we continue our steady descent to Penrhyn and Minffordd where we cross the Cambrian Coast Railway. Our descent continues to Boston Lodge works and onto the famed seawall to our destination at Porthmadog. I would like to offer my thanks to all the volunteers, staff and train crew for making my visit such a thoroughly enjoyable experience. For a map of the route please click on this link - http://www.festrail.co.uk/route.htm
Track gauge - 1 ft 11 1⁄2 in (597 mm)
One question that has come up many times in the comments is "Why doesn't the train leave the tracks when it passes through a switch set for the opposite track at 07:48" - it is not easy to explain, but I'll try -
The switches at either end on the passing loop are set to allow trains to pass without the need for railway personnel to set them, in this case the train will always take the right hand track in the direction of travel, when the train reaches the end of the loop the switch appears to be set incorrectly. The switch blades are held in place by a spring mechanism that allows them to be pushed over by the weight of a train passing through them, as this train is about to do. Once the train is clear they are automatically set to allow a train in the opposite direction to take the right hand track, thus making the passing loop automatic. The system works well so long as a train never reverses before clearing the switch as that will de-rail the train. The first time this system is seen in operation it looks wrong, but it is common practice on many lines where speed is low and costs need to be kept to a minimum.

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