Tremadog (near Porthmadog)

The cliff railway (1896) at Aberystwyth takes passengers from ground level at the  sea front to the top of Constitution Hill. What a view. It was also originally a water balance system, but converted to electric in 1921, presumably it was not cost efficient to get water to the top of the hill.


When we were back at ground level, we drove to Porthmadog, where we were intending to have a look around, stay the night and ride the Ffestiniog Railway, tomorrow, to Blaenau Ffestiniog, which was a big slate quarrying town. We arrived in the town an hour before the second train for the day left at 1:30 pm, so we went on the train this afternoon. Seemed like a good idea in case the weather was not as good tomorrow. It seems that there is a little rain expected, so our decision may have been good.
The railway is a narrow gauge and the original “train” consisted of just wagons to carry the slate down to the Port at Porthmadog. The track slopes gently all the way down and the trucks just rolled down under gravity. Horses then pulled the trucks back to Blaenau Ffestiniog. There were many stables and changes of horses on the way. The steam engine was introduced in 1863 and it seems that these double ended engines, called the Double Fairlie, were designed specifically for this line. The Ffestiniog Railway was the first narrow gauge railway in the world to introduce steam locomotives. No time to look around Blaenau Ffestiniog because we had to catch the same train back as it was the last train. We drive through there tomorrow so should have time then.