Ffestiniog and Conwy

Drivers Eye View

Porthmadog - Blaenau Ffestiniog (Narrow Gauge) Blaenau Ffestiniog - Llandudno (Standard Gauge)

The 13.5 mile line was of course built to carry slate and for many years worked by gravity.

We travel aboard one of the famous double Fairlie steam locos - “Merddin Emrys”. The ride is typically rocky in places, as you might expect.

The terrain changes from the wide open “Cob” at Porthmadog, to the fertile wooded valley in the vale of Ffestiniog, to the slate capital itself.

The BR line, originally LNWR, was built in order to capitalise on the slate traffic as well.

Within the first mile, on board a class 101 DMU, we pass the old mine and quarry workings and enter the 2¼ mile long Ffestiniog tunnel, Britain’s longest single mainline railway tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel is the wild & remote Lledr Valley.

At Betws y Coed we stop briefly to explore the Conwy Valley Railway Museum.

The line then levels out and we dash along the Conwy Valley to Llandudno Junction, on the Chester to Holyhead mainline.

Finally, as most services go through to Llandudno itself, so do we.

The 3 mile branch is double track and still block-worked with semaphores.

Filmed 1991.