The Abandoned Ffestiniog Railway & Deviations
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- Опубликовано: 27 ноя 2024
- We're at the world famous narrow gauge railway - the Ffestiniog Railway today. One of the jewels in Wales great little train attractions.
The railway opened in 1830s. It's role was to transport slate from the many quarries up the line to Bleanau Ffestiniog down to the sea at Porthmadog, where it would be shipped worldwide. The line travels through some spectatular landscapes. In the 1940s the line fell into disrepair and closed down. It was saved by a group of volunteers and piece by piece restored all the way to the destination of Bleanau.
In this video we're looking at one section of the railway that was lost for different reasons. In the 1950s, plans for a hyro-electric power station near the town of Tanygrisiau caused the course of the line to be lost under water. Despite protests and the railway already having plans to reopen, the flooding went ahead. This has left the railway with some interesting disused sections of the original railway. As in the 1960s and 1970s, volunteers would work away building a new line - known as the Deviation - or the Llyn Ystradau Deviation. These were called the Deviationists. At Dduallt station, the line entered a new spiral formation that raised the railway 36 feet to the new alignment around the flooded valley.
The original route when the line opened was horse drawn, with gravity doing the work on the gentle gradient going down, and horses pulling the empty wagons back up. However after only a handful of years, this route was found to be not fit for purpose due to incline plains needed to navigate the bottom of the Moelwyn Mountains. In 1842, a new tunnel was built - what is now known as the old Moelwyn tunnel. This was abandoned and plugged when the line was flooded.
The new deviation saw a new tunnel built as the line snaked it's way through cuttings to Tanygrisiau.
We'll take a look at what is left of the old routes and how these differ from the new route.
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On a visit to the North Wales railways in August 1963 I walked from Tan-y-Bwlch to the Moelwyn tunnel . The trackbed was not so overgrown ,but the tunnel entrance was flooded. I never thought that the railway would reconnect to Blaneau . I visited a few times again in the late 60’s & early 70’s & only again in 1982 (having emigrated to South Africa in 1973)& was delighted to see & experience a journey to Blaneau. It is amazing to see on this & other preserved lines what can be achieved by a group of dedicated enthusiasts in spite of the efforts of the ‘authorities’ to thwart them.
Very interesting.I always enjoy rambling along old abandoned permanent way's, half expecting an old steamer to round a bend. There are still some of the old track beds from the Connemara Railway from Galway to Clifden to be seen. You need to drive the older narrow road to see them in certain places. I recently found out part of the Donegal railway has been restored. I vaguely being there in about 1966 I think as a nipper, and I was given slide photographs my sister found in the attic to scan. There I was in shorts and arran sweater amongst old chuffers and the rail cars. The rail cars had a diesel engine in front of the driver not unlike an old Bedford OB bus painted a red and cream not a million miles away from the old British rail blood & Custard colour scheme.
I've been on the Ffestineog a couple of times and its a beautiful and nostalgic journey. All thanks to the hard work of those hardy souls back in the 70's. The journey from Carnarvon on the double ender is a great trip too. And North Wales is a beautiful place to tour around too,
Cheers 👍 that's very interesting.
I was up in Connemara a few years ago staying in the coast between Galway and Clifden. Beautiful area. Maybe I've an excuse to go back for a closer look now 😊
Absolutely bloody fascinating somewhere I have always wanted to see. Now too old to do it myself. Last travelled on the line in 1958.
Thanks for this! My first encounter with any narrow gauge railway was that very embankment south of the old Moelwyn Tunnel, in the summer of 1963. The boys' group I was with had hiked from somewhere in the Blaenau area and had already had to make a diversion because the adult in charge was using an old map and hadn't known about the reservoir! We came over the hill and suddenly there were these rusty rails and rotting sleepers winding their way through the grass up there in the lonely hills. I remember the sight having quite an emotional effect on me. 🙂 We walked down the still closed line to Tan-y-Bwlch and caught a train from there to Portmadoc (as it was then) hauled by the _old_ "Earl of Merioneth" (now in the National Railway Museum with its original name "Livingston Thompson").
It's amazing to think that some of the old track's still there!
Great story Nigel 👍
The model railway club I was a member of on the early/mid 1970s (Brambleton MRC, still going strong in Harpenden) had a working camping holiday on the FR every August in the 60s to the 80s with lads of 14-18 working at clearing vegetation and other tasks. I remember 1 year laying track at Tanygrisiau in preparation for it becoming the temporary terminus as the deviation gradually progressed from Ddault towards Blaenau. I doubt such a great adventure would be possible these days….but several of the guys still volunteer on the FR 50 years later
Great to hear. Great to be part of a piece of history 👍
Ah great video! It’s a lovely walk that. Pretty sure that fence that blocked you is new. I don’t remember that being there last year.
I believe the embedded track pins you’ve found could be part of the incline from the old copper mine. But I can’t be sure as I’m not entirely certain where you were. So much lost history there.
22:56 My Dad has mentioned there was a temporary platform/station built for the construction. That little bridge looks more like a hydro scheme bridge rather than anything original. If you look at the bridges/cuttings nearer the Lakeside Cafe they have a similar vibe about them.
It’s a bloody shame that the original Tanygrisiau buildings have been lost.
Well done on the pronunciations! I have heard much much worse!
We have a lot to thank those Deviationists! 👏👏👏
🙂 thank you.
Funny you should mention the fence. I wondered the same. I was looking at photos from that spot and couldn't see one.
Great video thank you 🙂 Always tried spotting the old routes from the train and love that so much of it is still there.
Cheers Mike
Thank you. I have waited to see this for a long, long time
Absolutely stunning part of the world. Amazing explore!
Thank you. It really is stunning isnt it.
Thanks for these Paul. My late dad (from Sheffield) was an FR enthusiast and worked on the deviation and various other working parties. I distinctly remember walking the old track bed, probably 40-50 years ago! We also explored the old quarries as in your earlier video but my main memory of it is lashing rain.
What a great family link to history there 👍. You can really appreciate the scale of the job they had when you get close to the landscape. Tremendous job
I was one of the deviants, we drove from North London in our trusty Bedford van, picking up people at Birmingham along the way. At TanyBwlch, we parked the van and loaded all our gear onto a track trolley which we pushed up to the Moelwyn Mess. Over the course of the easter weekend, we shifted stone to form the new route to the new tunnell and carried out works atTanygrisiau including blasting out rock with explosives. We had to hump all the tools and our provisions for the day across the mountains before starting work and back again in the evening. Some memeories of the Mess, there was beer on tap for stupidly low price, the first pint didnt touch the sides after working with stone and cement dust all day, and the water was obtained from the tunnel area by means of a ram pump. There was an ex-RM commando who was in charge of the site at Tanygrisiau where their was a an ancient 6-wheeled road crane. Bring back any memories for anyone? We all must be in our 70s now.
@@ericthelan2188 It's those stories that make it all come alive for me. I bet there were friendships and memories forged for life.
What a beautiful part of the world. Really enjoyed the search for where the original railway went. So great that the railway us still going even though it has deviated from its original course.
Thanks Keith. This was probably the highlight of my year so far.
Excellent, well done! Thank You!!
Thank you 🙂👍
Very interesting thanks for sharing.
This video was brilliant Paul, your description of the railway was spot on, yes world famous narrow gauge railway! Beautiful filming of the train going over the bridge. Amazing walk through the old original railway with sleepers still in situ & old boundry posts & cuttings & random pieces of old rail! Just fab. Awesome scenery Paul, very fortunate having gorgeous weather too! Thanks Paul really enjoyed this video. ❤😊👍
Great stuff. Glad you enjoyed in Carol. That took some putting together that one. Was a fantastic day out though. One of the highlights of my holiday 😊
Another cracking video Paul ,I actually travelled on the new alignment just after the opening as a 10 year old and the old realignment was very apparent then , well done for actually documenting it on what's left, 👏 👍 😀
Cheers Ian 👍
Another delightful explore in gorgeous scenery and weather. Those old embankments looked solid even after all that time. Very impressive, and equally impressive from the volunteers building the new alignment, infact I remember seeing a programme on BBC4 about them a long time ago. Very cool finding rails and sleepers still in situ!
👍 I think I saw the same documentary many years ago.
Fascinating piece of history.
A great video on the old line. I've ridden the Tourist Train from Porthmadog several times on holidays to the Old Dart over the years. I had hoped to be able to ride the extension to Caernarfon but the years caught up with me before it was opened. Great memories though.
👍 It's a wonderful journey isnt it. Im yet to do the section to Caernarfon.
The railway sued the CEGB for compensation and it went to court and even ended up in the house of lords who ruled in the railway's favour and they got a compensation payout of over 1 million pounds.
But they also had trouble with the deviation route not just in the work but one land owner didn't want the railway on his land and he held up progress for some time and later the CEGB reared it's ugly head again saying it didn't want the deviation either. But Alan Pegler was holidaying in Port Meirion and he met the head of the CEGB (lord something) and wandering round the gardens told him what the railway wanted to do and Alan said "within twenty minutes it was all cleared up and we were given the go ahead. We'd had years and years of battling the authorities only to have it all cleared up in a few minutes. It was just incredible!"
One member of the deviation crew said many of the deviation people were very academically gifted but had little to no experience in the practical side of life. A hut was built where they had their meals and slept and these academically gifted people couldn't light a wood fired stove. At one stage they were trying to move a compressor and they couldn't haul it so this bloke (ex royal navy) rigged up some ropes so they were pulling to their advantage something they just couldn't work out. Where the deviation went into rock and couldn't be dugout local ex Cornish miners who knew all about explosives would blast the rock out and at weekends the deviation people would spend their weekend moving the blasted rock away.
When they reached Ddualt and turned right they went straight into a deep bog which swallowed all the earth they put into it. So the only way to get rid of the bog was to blast it and then fill the hole. Bog blasting became a regular occurrence on the deviation.
Alan Garraway who was the lines GM said "that when the railway got back to Tan-y-bwlch that he said track improvements had to made because so much of the railway looked like a bridleway and there were case where coaches came off the track and the re-railed themselves. All these mishaps were quietly swept under the proverbial carpet but he stressed had they gone the other way and there had been serious accidents with loss of life then there would be no FR today". Fortunately the board members agreed with him and a program of track improvements was undertaken. The new Moelwyn tunnel was made to a larger loading gauge as the original was extremely tight.
The railway actually goes over the pipes from the top lake to the bottom lake and the CEGB insisted that the work was done by professionals and not many people realise that where the railway goes over the pipes the railway runs over a viaduct, buried in the ground.
Later deviation work was done by the "manpower services scheme" so the deviation people were no longer on their own.
Tanygrisiau was originally a terminus for the preserved railway whilst they built back to Blaenau and when they did it lost one of it's station tracks and then later that track was reinstalled to making it a passing station.
Thanks for info. Some interesting stories there.
It's great to hear these acounts from that era and the challenges faced.
@@WobblyRunner Rail Films did a triple VHS video on the Ffestiniog Railway where all this was told.
Absolutely brilliant video. The effort you put in for us to watch is outstanding.
I can't believe the amount of work done by the volunteers for everyone's benefit.
Love your videos, nice to see some lovely weather for a change.
We went on June 1st for a weekend for a trip on each route,absolutely brilliant in every way, staff scenery all outstanding.
Look forward to your next video.
Thanks Ernest.
Glad you had a good time. I still havent travelled on the WHR section. I keep meaning to do it whenever we go. Hopefully next year. I remember going to see that trackbed in the 90s before it was rebuilt. I wish I could go back with the camera.
Track Pins. These may be Surveyor's Points. (Survey Markers) They stood Theodolites on During Construction. Another great video.. 🤔
Thanks Mike. Good shout.
Such a great walk along the old line. It's always a shame they lost the old line under the lake. But even if the railway was able to keep the old line the Tunnel at Moelwyn would have needed to been made bigger. Locomotives were so tight in the old tunnel you couldn't walk alongside the Loco and the ventilation was terrible.
Very true. I wonder if the more modern fairlies would even fit?
Many videos have been made about this railway but one was so different and informative ...Great stuff .?many thanks enjoyed it emensily..
Thanks very much Dave. Glad you enjoyed it. Had a fantastic time putting it together.
Brilliant video Paul really interesting your knowledge is outstanding in all your videos keep up the great work really enjoyed it.
Thanks Chris. Glad I come across as knowledgeable 😄 plenty more in the pipeline
Great video, thanks very much.
Thanks
Thanks very much Stephen. Thanks for the support 👍
Fascinating. Thank you.
Did you have swim? 🏊♂️ Like you say; it’s very inviting! I would’ve done for sure.
Enjoy the video. I didn’t even realise you could see the north end of the old Moelwyn tunnel until I checked it out. When I saw it I was very surprised it wasn’t totally covered with water! In your video the water is deeper than when saw it.
Haha with some of the boggy ground it was more of a paddle than a swim 😄
When the reservoir water level is low, you can walk all the way to the blocked off tunnel a little bit we wet right next to it
The track you found was the incline up to the Wrysgan quarry, its the steep one you can see climbing up the mountain. That quarry is where the really good mine remains, recommended to go the long way up the mountain than climb up that nasty steep incline.
Oh and you need to take the gravity train on the occasions they still run it from Dduallt.
👍 it's a shame we've had a wet year. Was hoping to walk on the trackbed through the reservoir. Even then footpath was flooded out in places
There was also a junction just at the lake side of the tunnel and you can see more abandoned formation leading to the quarry on the other side of the lake
Ah yes I noticed that. Spoilt for choice.
one big thank you for showing me where l walk once
You're welcome
Lovely and really grabbed my interest.thnkyou for posting😊
Glad you enjoyed it
Awesome, thank you!
You're welcome Rita :)
Brilliant mate, very interesting.
Cheers Jon
Very good vids. You need to walk it to see the details but the drones give a great overview.
Cheers Chris
If you want to get a run in, the Trailffest starts with a train ride then you run from Tanygrisiau to Porthmadog
Cheers Graham.
Maybe a few years ago. I think I'd need help if I ran up the platform at Tanygrisiau these days 😄
should all be reinstated to its former glory.
Another great video Paul, whats happened at Ddaultt last time i was there which scarily was 40 years ago the station was thriving and fully signalled . Looks closed now
Yeah it doesn't look used now. Request stop I believe, but that train had no intention of stopping. I assume the majority of passengers now are full line bookings?
@@WobblyRunner
A lot of railways are whole line only now. Its a shame that some have become very commercial and senior management see them as cash cows . I fear some will close in near future. You certainly wouldn't get volunteers today building that deviation
@@maestromanificationrailways are expensive to run. If they could afford to run barely half filled trains, at line capacity frequency, so the intermediate stations could get more visits, I imagine they would.
Was a p/way volunteer 1969 to 75. Was on the first (official) passenger train round the spiral . Grand memories of visiting the FR from 1961 to 2022!
I walked the old formation and over the top to join the new alignment back in the 80's as a teenager with my father. Something that always fascinated me was the the old tunnel had three vent shafts. My father had walked the area in 1964/5 when the shafts were just holes in the ground. In the 80's, he wasn't having us going anywhere near holes in the ground. Anyone know what happened to the vents as I have never seen any pictures of them ?
That's fascinating. I had no idea about any shafts on the old tunnel. I'm just having a closer look on the drone footage, but looks like they probably have been filled in without trace.
@@WobblyRunner I've also had a look at Google Satellite, although it probably isn't as good as your drone footage, but I can't see any evidence either. Locals we met in the 80's told us that farmers had lost sheep down the shafts because they had no surrounding and weren't fenced off. Given that the area is a common tourist walk now, I'd suggest that the shafts were probably concreted over long before the 80's with nature taking over now leaving no trace. I'd certainly be interested if anyone knows more.
BTW: That bridge at 9:17 was extant when I walked the line in the early 80's. I painted a water colour of it for my art 'O' level!
Another 'tuber - bee here now, made a related vlog two years ago - ruclips.net/video/4V2Y9y_z5g8/видео.html
brilliant
👍🙂
What a rotten job! Still, some poor soul's got to do it . . . lovely informative video - many thanks!
Our pleasure!
The railway still going as a really good tourist attraction?
Still going strong. Trains were very busy.
Thank you very much.
😊👍
❤
As a "deviationist" I am staggered by how little research has been done before posting this. It is an insult to the people that gave up their holidays to work on the4 deviation. No mention of the key features. Not even an attempt to pronounce Dduallt, no recognition that al lot of "the old sleepers are left over from the temporary tracks laid to move spoil from the deviation.
Fair enough
I’d love to see your videos showcasing the fine work done. Paul has taken time out of his day to produce a video which I personally thoroughly enjoyed, as did many others by the comments. Instead of being a keyboard warrior, which is what you are, why not educate everyone rather than coming on here rather than shooting your mouth off, then thank Paul for the large amount of publicity he’s given to the railway, I’ll be visiting in 3 weeks, why? Because this video has given me things to look out for on a family trip, that’s 4 extra paying customers due to this video.
Please do post the links to the obviously better content you have produced
An unnecessarily aggressive negative comment. Paul has taken us on a enjoyable walk along the old trackbed, pointing out some interesting remains and the different courses the line has taken over the years.
As a professed ‘deviationist’ you could have added some interesting facts to enhance the enjoyment of the video for others. Instead you choose to deride and criticise.
The next time I ride on the ffestinog I shall remember this video and it will enhance my enjoyment of the journey. I may even try to follow the path myself.
@@andjfen I spent two weeks every year working on the deviation for 5 years while at University and paid for the priviledge of travelling there and back, walking in and living in one of the wooden messes and digging both tunnel north and tunnel south using hand tools only - in all weathers. So I feel I can comment with some authority. There was no mention of the work done by sone of the key people (e.g. Bunny). No mention of walking into one of the disued tunnels in the dark to collect our chilled food and hearing the lapping water of the reservoir behind the wall.
That is the story of the deviatin not getting confused between tracks put in to move spoil and past running tracks.
@@andrewgrant6464 and those stories are fantastic to hear, I’m sure Paul would have loved to have put those in IF he had known them, this was your opportunity to tell us all about your hard work and fantastic experiences yet you let that slide to have a dig at a creator who has brought publicity to the railway. I’m also a creator and I know just how much work goes into every one of these videos, from the research to the travelling to the filming and the edit. Each video will take 2-3 days of complete work. Paul covers many projects and hasn’t once claimed to be an expert on the project but has taken the time to show us what he sees and what he’s learnt, respect that for what it is rather than coming on here and ruining the hard work you and the team did by being rude and aggressive. I for one would love to hear more stories as I’m sure many others here would.
Ffestiniog railway rip off! Overpriced and boring. 45 Pounds for a ride through the woods. I can pay that on BR and get better scenery.
I admit, we decided against going on when we saw the price. Still a great little railway though.
Tan-uh-geasy-eye , or ...grisho. Anyhoo - one wonders why the original horse-drawn line wasn't utilised in the realignment of the line due to the reservoir. Now looking up the construction of the power station, it may answer some questions.