The Ffestiniog Railway

Regular visitors to this site will have by now realised that the Ffestiniog Railway is one of my favourites.
From the point of view of sound recording it is excellent having many locations well away from roads, locomotives which, when worked hard (as they often are) make plenty of noise and don't forget the excellent scenery!
The only drawbacks are rain,midges which are at least as bad as those in the Highlands and RAF Valley who appear to use me as a practice mission target when I'm recording, at least, I hope that they are practising!
As I now have almost 9 hours of recordings made on this railway, have recorded in almost every location on the railway and in view of the popularity of the Ffestiniog Interactive Audio CD I thought it was about time that I made more recordings available on audio CDs. You will find details of two new CDs on this page. The recordings below are a sample of the tracks on them.

The majority of passengers travelling on the Ffestiniog Railway begin their journey at Porthmadog and we will do the same.
In this recording we hear Double Fairlie 0-4-4-0T 'David Lloyd George' departing from Harbour Station and heading out across the Cob during the morning of 4th May 1998.
This track and the ones below are from the steamsounds Audio CD Ffestiniog Journey. Details here.

On 3rd May 1999 one of the smallest engines on the line which regularly sees use in passenger traffic, the England 0-4-0STT 'Prince' was employed working Vintage Shuttle trains between Porthmadog and Minffordd. Completed in 1864 this locomotive is still going strong on the line for which it was built and is reputed to be the oldest working steam locomotive in the world.
We join this train which has stopped at Boston Lodge Halt for a short on-train recording of the locomotive departing and producing some excellent sounds on the gradient heading towards Minffordd.

Minffordd station, being built as it is next a very busy main road, is not conducive to good sound recordings due to the sound of traffic passing by.
Still, despite the noise of traffic on the adjacent road Double Fairlie 0-4-4-0T 'Earl of Merioneth' makes a fine sound arriving at and departing from the station with the first train of the day to Blaenau Ffestiniog on the morning of 11th September 2003.

After Minffordd the next station on the line is Penrhyn and just beyond the station is Penrhyn Level crossing. There are other level crossings on the railway but most of them are ungated with warning lights to protect road users. The one at Penrhyn however, is busy enough to need gates and a level crossing keeper to work them.
In this recording, made on 27th May 2003, the Alco 2-6-2T 'Mountaineer' can be heard departing from Penrhyn.
As the train heads for Blaenau Ffestiniog clearing the crossing the gates are reopened and the sound of road traffic resumes.

Rhiw Goch loop isn't used very often nowadays, generally only during special events and galas but when the vintage train ran through to Tan-y-Bwlch in the main summer season it was required to be open and in use on an almost daily basis.
On the morning of 31st August 1999 the England 0-4-0STT 'Prince' was in use on the vintage train and is heard in this recording departing through the trees and across the Cei Mawr embankment.

Double Fairlie 'David Lloyd George' is heard in this on train recording departing from Tan-y-Bwlch on 21st May 2003.
This is a small part of the complete recording of a journey from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog available on the CD 'A Ride on the Ffestiniog Railway'. Details here.

By 1968 the Ffestiniog Railway had succeeded in restoring services as far as Dduallt but to extend beyond this point to Blaenau Ffestiniog there was a major problem.
In the 1950's the British Energy Authority, later to become the CEGB, announced the construction of a pumped storage hydro electric power station at Tanygrisiau. This meant that Moelwyn Tunnel and some of the original track bed were to be flooded in conjunction with building the lower reservoir.
The Railway's answer to this was to propose building a new line around this reservoir.
Much has been written elsewhere about the legal, practical and engineering difficulties of building what later came to be known as the 'Deviation' but in 1978 it was completed and trains were once again able to reach Tanygrisiau and rejoin the original route to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
What makes this new route unique in the British Isles is the spiral which had to be constructed at Dduallt to gain some 35 feet in height to reach the new route.
In this recording made on 1st June 2002 from the small hill in the middle of the spiral we hear 'Linda' departing.
The complete recording on the CD last for almost 7 minutes as the train arrives in the station then passes behind and then in front of the microphone as it negotiates the spiral.

The new station in Blaenau Ffestiniog provides a most satisfactory interchange between the Ffestiniog Railway and trains on the Conway Valley line to Llandudno Junction. It opened in 1982 and during the same year the first FR passenger train since 1946 reached the terminus.
In this recording made from the end of the standard gauge platform the Alco 2-6-2T 'Mountaineer' is heard approaching the terminus.
The final approach to the platform end is on a short gradient of 1 in 66, the steepest on the railway.
As the train comes to a stand in the platform and the Guard begins to unlock the doors, unlike the alighting passengers many of whom will have the journey back to Porthmadog to look forward to, this brings our Ffestiniog Journey to an end. I hope that you have enjoyed it.