From “Railway Herald” Late September 2016
The first steps have now been taken towards restoring a train service between Blaenau Ffestiniog and Trawsfynydd, with clearance work being undertaken on a short section of the trackbed at Blaenau on 24th September.The line was opened by the Bala & Festiniog Railway in November 1882, originally linking Bala with Llan Ffestiniog, and it was extended the following year by taking over the trackbed of the 1ft 111⁄2 in gauge Festiniog and Blaenau Railway, and from then on terminated at the GWR station of Blaenau Ffestiniog, connecting with the Ffestiniog Railway until the latter’s closure in 1939. At its opposite end, it also connected with the GWR line from Ruabon to Barmouth at Bala Junction, and was absorbed into the GWR in 1910. This line was a pre-Beeching era casualty, however, losing its passenger service in 1960 and closing in its entirety in 1961. Part of the line was subsequently flooded with the building of the Llyn Celyn reservoir.With the opening of the Trawsfynydd nuclear power station, a way needed to be found to transport the fuel flasks to the site, and a short new section of line was constructed in 1964 through Blaenau to connect to the Conwy Valley Line, and the six-and-a-half miles of the original line to a point just north of the former Trawsfynydd Lake Halt was reopened to handle this traffic. With the reopening of the Ffestiniog Railway to Blaenau in 1982, a new nterchange station was constructed on the site of the former GWR station, with all BR trains using the newly constructed link from the Conwy Valley Line from this point onwards.With the closure of the power station at Trawsfynydd in 1998, the line was mothballed, and despite two previous preservation attempts, has gradually been taken over by encroaching vegetation ever since. The recently formed Trawsfynydd and Blaenau Ffestiniog Community Railway Company has obtained a licence from Network Rail to commence clearance on the line in order to assess the condition of the track, embankments and structures with a view to operating passenger services to Trawsfynydd in the medium term. The line takes a meandering route through some stunning scenery in the Snowdonia National Park, and could potentially provide a valuable tourist lifeline to an otherwise remote part of Wales. The first step is to clear approximately 275 metres of the line and complete a survey along this stretch of the railway. Colin Dale, of the Trawsfynydd and Blaenau Ffestiniog community railway company, says he hopes the clearance project could be completed within eight months. It is hoped that the full clearance work will be completed by next summer, allowing detailed surveys of the bridges and viaducts on the route to be undertaken. Network Rail will continue to work closely with the Trawsfynydd Railway team, but no commitments have yet been made to reopen the eight-mile line. It remains to be seen if there is sufficient tourist demand for another line in the area, which will be competing against the well-established Ffestiniog Railway and the rising popularity of the Welsh Highland Railway, especially with the lack of a high-profile destination. However, with the vast majority of the trackbed beyond Trawsfynydd emaining intact, there is always the distant possibility of a link-up through Bala to the Llangollen Railway at Corwen.
.....Perhaps they could pay for their tickets with coins bearing the image of Llewelyn ap Iowerth.
