The Gorseddau Junction and Portmadoc Railway is a defunct

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

tramway. The ''GJ&PR'' was a

narrow-gauge railway 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 struct ...

connecting the slate quarries of Cwm Pennant with the wharves at

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 F ...

harbour. It was built in 1872, partly as a conversion of the earlier gauge Gorseddau Tramway, which in itself had incorporated the even earlier gauge Tremadoc Tramway. It opened to mineral and goods traffic in 1875.

Route and operation

The main line followed the route of the original Gorseddau Tramway from

through Tremadoc, ''Penmorfa'' and ''Ynys-y-Pandy'' to Gorseddau quarry. On conversion, the line from Porthmadog to Braich-y-bib, just north of Ynys-y-Pandy, was regauged to . A new extension was added from Braich-y-bib. This led west along the Cwm Pennant before heading north to Cwm Trwsgl where inclines served the Prince of Wales and Dol-ifan-Gethin slate quarries and the Cwm Dywfor

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

and

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, ...

mine. This branch added an additional 5 miles to the length of the railway, for a total length of 13 miles. At Porthmadog the last few hundred yards of the original Gorseddau route were abandoned and traffic was worked to the wharves over the

Croesor Tramway The Croesor Tramway was a Welsh, narrow gauge railway line built to carry slate from the Croesor slate mines to Porthmadog. It was built in 1864 without an Act of Parliament and was operated using horse power. The tramway was absorbed into th ...

. At around the same time the line from Braich-y-bib to Gorseddau quarry had been abandoned. The Prince of Wales quarry supplied most of the traffic for the railway during its existence. Unlike its predecessor the GJ&PR had a single

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

, a vertical boilered De Winton named ''Pert'', although it continued to use horses as motive power for most of its existence. The locomotive is believed to have been disused after 1878, and to have been sold in 1896 to Glodd-fa'r-Glai Quarry which was connected to the Nantlle Railway.

Abandonment

By 1887 the railway had largely fallen into disuse as the mines and quarries it served failed, and by 1890 single wagons were being hand propelled to Porthmadog. The land the railway ran on was sold in 1897 by which time it had been dismantled. Between about 1903 and 1907, a short section of Gorseddau trackbed between the

Cambrian Railways The Cambrian Railways owned of track over a large area of mid Wales. The system was an amalgamation of a number of railways that were incorporated in 1864, 1865 and 1904. The Cambrian connected with two larger railways with connections to the ...

station in Porthmadog and the junction with the

was again re-used to connect the Moel y Gest quarry tramway via the Croesor and the Festiniog to the wharves. Although the latter tramway closed in 1907 and was re-laid in 1919 as a standard-gauge siding of the Cambrian, this section survived until the early 1950s.

Ynys-y-Pandy Mill

The railway served the Ynys-y-Pandy Mill ( cy, Melin Ynys-y-Pandy) a three-storey structure which processed slate from the Gorseddau Quarry. The mill was built in 1856-7 by Evan Jones of

Garndolbenmaen Garndolbenmaen, known colloquially as Garn, is a village in the county of Gwynedd, Wales. It lies near the A487, approximately north west of Porthmadog, in the community of Dolbenmaen, which has a population of 1,300. The closest villages ar ...

and is believed to have been designed by James Brunlees. A curved ramp brought two branches of the railway into the mill on two different levels, one to the upper floor, the other to the middle floor. The building incorporated a diameter internal overshot water wheel. The mill produced flag-stones, dairy equipment, troughs, and urinals. The building was a venue for

eisteddfod In Welsh culture, an ''eisteddfod'' is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term ''eisteddfod'', which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: , meaning 'sit', and , meaning 'be', means, ac ...

au until the roof was removed around 1906. The remains of the mill is Grade II* listed. The small waste tips at the site show that little slate was worked at the mill. In the 1980s the mill was bought by the Snowdonia National Park Authority and the stonework was repaired. 'Ynys y Pandy' is

for 'Isle of Pandy' or 'Pandy Island'.

References

External links

Surviving features and quarries served
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gorseddau Junction And Portmadoc Railway Welsh Highland Railway Early Welsh railway companies Rail transport in Gwynedd Industrial railways in Wales Railway companies established in 1872 Railway companies disestablished in 1892 Railway lines opened in 1872 Narrow gauge railways in Gwynedd 2 ft gauge railways in Wales Porthmadog Dolbenmaen Narrow gauge railways in Snowdonia

Route and operation

Abandonment

Ynys-y-Pandy Mill

Further reading

References

External links