F&WHR - Completing the Link

PRESS RELEASE

THE FFESTINIOG AND WELSH HIGHLAND RAILWAYS WILL BE CONNECTED AT HARBOUR STATION ON SATURDAY,
FEBRUARY 28th, AT 2pm.

This milestone marks the culmination of track-laying on the £28m Welsh Highland Railway development.


It is a railway tradition when making the final connection to complete a new railway line that golden bolts are used and great celebrations are held.

Following in the footsteps of those pioneers, who built railways across great nation states, the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland teams are to connect the two railways at Harbour Station, Porthmadog on Saturday the 28th of February at 2.00pm.

This milestone marks the culmination of ten years effort by over five hundred volunteers, supported by funding from private donations, the Millennium Commission, Welsh European Funding Office and the Welsh Highland Railway Society.

The final golden bolts will be installed by representatives from the two teams that have completed the lion’s share of the track laying work.

The teams work on alternate weekends with one team (Black Hand Gang) made up of predominantly Welsh speaking local volunteers, and the other gang (Rest of the World Gang) comprising volunteers living throughout the UK and beyond.

Once the connection is made our latest locomotive, No87 - newly restored at our own Boston Lodge works - will make the first movement onto the new section of line and will be positioned with original Ffestiniog Railway locomotives, built in the same works more than 100 years ago.

Visitors are welcome to witness and record this historic moment!

Public services are scheduled to commence from Caernarfon to Beddgelert on the 8th of April.

The service will extend through the Aberglaslyn Pass to Hen Hafod on the 21st of May and through to Porthmadog after the 2009 peak summer service.

Mr. Mike Hart, Chairman of Welsh Highland Construction Ltd, the subsidiary company of the Ffestiniog Railway tasked with building the new line said:

‘This is a very proud moment for the many people that have worked so hard to make this dream a reality.”

“Our volunteers and staff have worked in all weathers and against seemingly overwhelming odds at times to reach this landmark. We are delighted to make this connection with the world’s oldest independent railway and we are looking forward to running public services in the spring.”


pp Paul Lewin, General Manager FRCo