Fairbourne Railway

The Fairbourne Railway ( Welsh: Rheilffordd Friog y ) is a miniature narrow gauge railway with today 311 mm track width and a length of 3.2 km. It leads from the coastal village of Fairbourne in the northern Mid-Wales along the beach on a peninsula to the investors of the Barmouth Ferry, a ferry with which passengers can translate to the seaside resort of Barmouth on the estuary of the River Mawddach. The web has always been a tourist train and had, unlike many other narrow gauge railways in Wales only in its early days a meaning for freight.

History

The railway was opened for the transportation of building materials in 1895 as a horse track with a length of 2 feet (610 mm). She offered to a traffic between Fairbourne Village and Penrhyn Point and in 1916 umgespurt to 381 mm and 1986 on its current track width of 311 mm. Since its early days, it is used by tourists. The highest ridership reached 70,000 passengers in 1970.

The horse tram the early days

As the region became accessible for day trippers from the Midlands to Fairbourne after the completion of the Cambrian Coast Line in 1865 and the Barmouth Bridge in 1867, there have been various plans to develop tourism in the area. At this time there were already several horse tracks, especially for the removal of the stones of the Henddol quarry on the neighboring Friog. The horse-drawn railway, which was built for the construction of the town Fairbourne, soon led a passenger car to transport people to the ferry and the beach can.

The first time the Fairbourne Miniature Railway

The distance was 381 mm (15 inches), a widely used in miniature and Park railways gauge, umgespurt and through society Narrow Gauge Railways Ltd ( NGR) 1916 operated by a steam locomotive from Wenman Joseph Bassett - Lowke. The Company had the aim to promote tourism in the area. As locomotives was the Bassett -Lowke class 10 locomotive Prince Edward of Wales, which was developed by Henry Greenly used. The passengers were transported in four open cars. The railway played an important role in the development of the railways with 15 inch gauge in the UK.

During the Second World War had the train of owners, among other things, she was temporarily rented by the operator of the ferry. After purchasing a locomotive with 457 mm (18 inches) gauge, an a GNR Stirling 4-2-2, was moved a third track to the golf course. In 1940, a diesel locomotive was used on the type Lister Rail Truck, after the railway was closed.

The era Wilkins: 1947-1984

A consortium of businessmen from the Midlands rescued the railway in 1946 and after restoration it was opened again in 1947. The owner of the web, John Wilkins, invested in the renovation of the railway facilities and bought new steam locomotives. Your best days had the railway in the 1960s and 1970s. Due to the advent of cheap air travel and mass tourism in southern countries and the revival of several disused narrow gauge railways in the region as museum railways, however, the number of passengers in the 1970s and 1980s has continuously decreased.

The era Ellerton 1984-1995

1984, the track was sold to the Ellerton family. The track was established in 1986 to 311 mm umgespurt (12 inches ), a new terminal was built in Fairbourne. Four new steam locomotives for the new track were bought and sold the old locomotives for the 15-inch gauge. Two of the new locomotives came from the insolvent Réseau Guerlédan Chemin de Fer Touristique in Brittany in France. All four steam locomotives Yeo, Sherpa, Beddgelert and Russell are scaled replicas of real narrow gauge railway locomotives. Of the 15 -inch locomotives only the diesel locomotive remained Sylvia (rebuilt as Lilian Walter ) on the track. However, most of the 15 -inch locomotives are still intact and found on other tracks, a new field of application.

In 1990 the first own steam locomotive, the Number 24 was built. It is a scaled replica of a locomotive with the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad in Maine. This locomotive is now running at the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway in Lincolnshire.

The Fairbourne Railway in 1990 re-offered for sale and its future prospects appeared rather bleak. She was five years for sale and its technical condition deteriorated rapidly.

Since 1995

In April 1995, the orbit of Professor and Mrs. Atkinson and Dr & Mrs. Melton was purchased. They invested heavily in the state and the reliability of the locomotives, the track and in an additional attraction: the Museum of Nature Rowen Nature Centre in Fairbourne Station. Also a model railway it is built in IIm and steadily expanded since 2007.

In order to secure the future of the Fairbourne Railway, the property went to her in February 2009 to the charitable company The Fairbourne Railway Preservation Society over which mainly operates the web since this time volunteers.

The ferry

A ferry link to bridge the Mawddach estuary is for hundreds of years. It was originally operated by the monks. Since approximately from the beginning of the 20th century it was run by individuals and eventually taken over by the railway company in 2007. By purchasing the new Fährboots "Y Chuff " and the takeover of the ferry service this could be ensured even in the off season.

Stations

Bibliography

Books:

• Boyd J. I. C.; Narrow Gauge Railways in Mid Wales, 1965.
• Buck, S; Siân and Katie - The Twining Sisters, Siân Project Group, 1995
• Buck, S; EW Twining, ModelMaker, Artist & Engineer, Landmark Publishing, 2004 ISBN 1-84306-143-0
• Butcher, Alan C. (ed ); Railways Restored 2005. Ian Allan Publishing Co, Hersham, Surrey, 2005. ISBN 0-7110-3053-7
• Milner, W. J.; Rails through the Sand. Rail Romances, Chester, 1996. ISBN 1-900622-00-9
• Wilkins J; Fairbourne Railway - A Short History of It's Development and Progress, c1961
• Fairbourne Railway; Souvenir Guidebook, 2005.

Magazines

• One Foot Between The Rails ( published quarterly by the Fairbourne Railway Preservation Society )

Multimedia

• Tracks in the Sand The Story of the Fairbourne Railway - A Film by Eric Montague site