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Welsh Highland Railway

1 ft 11½ in gauge railways in WalesBeddgelertBetws GarmonBontnewydd, GwyneddCaernarfon
DolbenmaenHF StephensHeritage railways in SnowdoniaLlanfrothenLlanwnda, GwyneddNarrow gauge railways in SnowdoniaPorthmadogUse British English from January 2012Welsh Highland Railway
Welsh Highland Railway
Welsh Highland Railway

The Welsh Highland Railway (WHR; Welsh: Rheilffordd Eryri) is a 25-mile (40.2 km) long, restored 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in (597 mm) narrow gauge heritage railway in the Welsh county of Gwynedd, operating from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passing through a number of popular tourist destinations including Beddgelert and the Aberglaslyn Pass. At Porthmadog it connects with the Ffestiniog Railway and to the short Welsh Highland Heritage Railway. In Porthmadog it uses the United Kingdom's only mixed gauge flat rail crossing. The restoration, which had the civil engineering mainly built by contractors and the track mainly built by volunteers, received a number of awards. Originally running from Dinas, near Caernarfon, to Porthmadog Harbour, the current line includes an additional section from Dinas to Caernarfon. The original line also had a branch to Bryngwyn and the slate quarries around Moel Tryfan, which has not been restored. (This branch forms a footpath "rail trail", the lower section of which has been resurfaced and supplied with heritage notice-boards.) There is also the 3⁄4-mile (1.2 km) long Welsh Highland Heritage Railway which runs from Porthmadog along the trackbed of the former Cambrian Railways exchange siding and connects to the WHR main line at Pen-y-Mount junction.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Welsh Highland Railway (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Welsh Highland Railway
A4085,

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Wikipedia: Welsh Highland RailwayContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 53.051388888889 ° E -4.1336111111111 °
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Address

A4085
LL54 6TH
Wales, United Kingdom
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Welsh Highland Railway
Welsh Highland Railway
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Snowdon Ranger railway station
Snowdon Ranger railway station

Snowdon Ranger is a station on the narrow gauge Welsh Highland Railway, which was built in 1878 as the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways Moel Tryfan Undertaking, to carry dressed slate to Dinas Junction on the LNWR. The station was originally known as Quellyn Lake but was renamed after the path to the Summit of Snowdon popularised by, and named after, the local mountain guide, "The Snowdon Ranger", who went by that name for many years. Certainly the name "Snowdon Ranger" was in common use on company timetables from as early as 1879, and that of the adjacent Snowdon Ranger Hotel from at least 1869.Passenger services ceased on 26 September 1936 and the station was reopened in 2003 following the complete reconstruction of the railway from Waunfawr to Rhyd Ddu. The train services are operated by the Festiniog Railway Company's Welsh Highland Railway subsidiary. Snowdon Ranger is currently operated as an unmanned halt and trains call only by request. Following reconstruction, the Section from Waunfawr to Rhyd Ddu was formally reopened by the Prince of Wales on 30 July 2003. Prince Charles travelled by special train from Waunfawr to Snowdon Ranger station where, having donned overalls, he alighted from the carriage and travelled on the footplate to Rhyd Ddu. Public passenger services re-commenced on 18 August 2003. The former station building is now in private ownership, and as such is one of the six original remaining NWNGR buildings, the others being the ruins of the former station building at Bettws Garmon, the ruined quarry sidings office at nearby Glanrafon Sidings, the restored station buildings at Tryfan Junction and Dinas; and the goods shed at Dinas.

Llyn Cwellyn
Llyn Cwellyn

Llyn Cwellyn (Llyn Quellyn in some antiquated texts) is a reservoir in North Wales which supplies drinking water to parts of Gwynedd and Anglesey. It lies on the Afon Gwyrfai in Nant y Betws between Moel Eilio and Mynydd Mawr in the northern part of Snowdonia National Park. It has an area of 215 acres (0.87 km2), and is over 120 ft (37 m) deep. At the southern end is the small village of Rhyd Ddu. Although it is now dammed at the northern end - below the Castell Cidwm ridge, near the village of Betws Garmon - this has not substantially increased the size of the natural glacial moraine lake that has existed since the last ice age. The lake is very deep and is one of the few lakes in Wales to support a natural population of Arctic char. The lake is also home to brown trout and there are otters that are regularly seen at the Castell Cidwm end. The lake has shared ownership between Lawrence Jones (businessman), owner of the Castell Cidwm estate at the northern end, and Welsh water, who own the right-hand side which supplies the weir. The lake was originally owned by the Marquis of Anglesey who used the Castell Cidwm country house as his hunting lodge. The A4085 runs past the lake; however, there are no lay-bys for picnics and the east side is now considered a Nature Reserve, and fishing is not permitted in the tree-lined area beside the road all the way down to Castell Cidwm. Fishing permits can be purchased for Cwellyn and fly fishing anglers can expect to catch wild brown trout here, which are abundant and often found along the shoreline which has easy wading. Char and salmon can also be caught, usually from the boats available for hire from the Cwellyn hotel. This lake is particularly dangerous when paddle boarding, wild swimming or kayaking in bad weather, as fast winds come down off Snowdon and through the valley, making it hard to travel back up the lake. This lake is a reservoir and electric engines only are permitted; electric engines with 50lb thrust are quite adequate to get around the lake, even in windy conditions. On the far side of the lake the land was planted as a commercial soft-wood forest and is now owned by Natural Resources Wales; however, logging has been stopped to prevent the water in the lake being polluted by silt generated by logging activities. In 2005 an outbreak of Cryptosporidiosis in the water supply drawn from the lake led to improvements being planned for the water treatment works. Work started in 2009 2 miles (3.2 km) down stream on an updated water treatment plant which included froth flotation, upward flow clarifiers and UV sterilisation of the treated water. The revised plant came online in September 2010 Further up the mountainside is the Welsh Highland Railway, which offers splendid views of the lake from the south. Road and railway both run from Caernarfon to Beddgelert and then through the Aberglaslyn Pass to Porthmadog. The railway comes from Caernarfon and as it approaches the lake veers left from the Castell Cidwm rock face through a hand-carved rock cutting and under a small bridge before heading up the east side of the lake towards Snowdon Ranger railway station and later Rhyd Ddu railway station at the start of the Rhyd Ddu path to the summit of Snowdon. Rail and road run side by side for over half a mile to the summit of the mountain pass at Pitt's Head where the road passes over the railway before descending steeply through Nant Colwyn to Beddgelert. Pitt's Head is also the starting point of the old 'Beddgelert' route of the Rhyd Ddu path to Snowdon. Midway along the eastern shore of the lake is the starting point of the easier but less sensational Snowdon Ranger path to the summit of Snowdon. This route makes an excellent way down Snowdon as the view of the lake is magnificent whatever the weather. Since the Middle Ages the overland route from Caernarfon to Beddgelert via Llyn Cwellyn and then via the River Glaslyn and the Traeth Mawr to Cardigan Bay was often the preferred alternative to the long voyage round the Llŷn Peninsula.