The Welsh Highland Heritage Railway is a short reconstructed

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Its main station is in

Porthmadog Porthmadog (; ), originally Portmadoc until 1974 and locally as "Port", is a Welsh coastal town and community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd and the historic county of Caernarfonshire. It lies east of Criccieth, south-west of Blaenau Ffest ...

History

The origins of the WHHR lie in a small group of railway enthusiasts, including some disgruntled volunteers from the Festiniog Railway, forming the Welsh Highland Railway Society in 1961, to preserve and rebuild the original

Welsh Highland Railway The Welsh Highland Railway (WHR) or Rheilffordd Eryri is a long, restored narrow gauge heritage railway in the Welsh county of Gwynedd, operating from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passing through a number of popular tourist destinations in ...

which had operated from 1922 to 1936. Land running alongside the Cambrian Coast line at Beddgelert Siding was acquired from

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

in December 1972. Work started on construction of the railway in 1973. A substantial works and engineering facility was constructed on the site of the former farm that was situated in the triangle of land between the Beddgelert Siding, the Cambrian Coast Railway and the original Welsh Highland Railway trackbed. The works have been expanded with newly constructed sheds and the re-use of some of the original agricultural buildings, which include one of the oldest buildings in Porthmadog. A museum of

narrow gauge railways A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...

is part to the works tour and from 2009, with the construction of a new building, this has more than doubled in size. The original Welsh Highland Railway has been reconstructed by the

Festiniog Railway Company The Ffestiniog Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Ffestiniog) is a heritage railway based on narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park. The railway is roughly long and ...

and the Welsh Highland Railway Limited.

Present

The railway offers a short train ride in heritage carriages to (where there is a physical connection to the current Welsh Highland Railway), just under a mile away from Porthmadog. On the return journey the train stops at , the location of the workshops and museum, where visitors can also ride on the Miniature Railway before returning to . The railway is mostly run by volunteers, who operate the trains and maintain the railway and its infrastructure. In 2014, '' Russell'' the only steam loco to survive from the original WHR, returned to service after a major overhaul costing about £250,000. ''Russell'' had been out of service since 2003.

Operations

The railway currently operates trains from March to November from their main station, which is located opposite the Network Rail station in Porthmadog on Tremadog Road. Trains run for to , where the railway connects with the WHR mainline. On the return journey, the train stops at

Gelert's Farm halt Gelert's Farm Halt railway station on the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway is a railway station in Wales that was opened in 1988. It is a simple platform alongside the main shed at Gelert's Farm Works. All trains in one direction stop at the ha ...

, allowing passengers to visit the museum and a gauge

miniature railway A ridable miniature railway (US: riding railroad or grand scale railroad) is a large scale, usually ground-level railway that hauls passengers using locomotives that are often models of full-sized railway locomotives (powered by diesel or petrol ...

. In 2007 and 2008, an additional short section of line was in use between and

Traeth Mawr Loop Traeth Mawr Loop was a run round loop on the Welsh Highland Railway (WHR), located to the north of Porthmadog, Wales. Track laying was completed by November 2006, making it the northern limit of track from Porthmadog. The location was opened as ...

. This line was built as part of an agreement signed in 1998 with the

Ffestiniog Railway The Ffestiniog Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Ffestiniog) is a heritage railway based on narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park. The railway is roughly long an ...

and allowed WHR Ltd. to run on the original Welsh Highland Railway trackbed for the first time. As part of the agreement, the section closed and became a construction site when the Ffestiniog Railway constructed WHR mainline from Caernarvon was connected in 2008.

Stations

* Porthmadog (WHHR) * Gelerts Farm Works Halt *

Pen-y-Mount Junction railway station Pen-y-Mount Junction station is the northern terminus of the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway (WHHR) in Porthmadog, Wales. With the opening of all three platforms, it has the most of any station in the Porthmadog area. Pen-y-Mount Junction is th ...

(no passenger access - Temporary 2007–2008)

Rolling stock

References

External links

*
More technical and historical information

Welsh Highland Railway - official site

The Welsh Highland Railway Project - official construction site

Welsh Highland Railway - unofficial construction site

The Pont Croesor Extension

Live.com map of route
{{Heritage railways in Wales * Porthmadog Heritage railways in Gwynedd Narrow gauge railways in Gwynedd Slate industry in Wales 1 ft 11½ in gauge railways in Wales