Spooner's Bar, Harbour Station, Porthmadog

Ffestiniog Railway No1 Princess at London Paddington (5th April 2013)

To Celebrate 150 years of Steam on the Ffestiniog Railway, No1 Princess was put on display at London Paddington for six weeks from 1st March 2013

This video is a quick look at her as she sits betyween the Heathrow Express Class 332s and First Great Western Class 43 HSTs or other Units, the locomotive had been displayed in Spooner's Café & Bar at Porthmadog Harbour Station, filmed 5th April 2013

Princess Dragged out of North Wales Pub

Oldest (narrow gauge) steam engine in the world leaves the pub at Harbour Station, Porthmadog en route to Paddington where she will be on show from 1st March (St David's Day) 2013 for six weeks

Beautique Porthmadog English

Here's Sarah of Beautique Porthmadog with the story of how she's grown her business. From humble beginnings in 2008 working in one rented room she now trades from her own high street premises so things are looking good!

Ffestiniog Railway

This is a video clip of the Ffestiniog train leaving Portmadog station before ours. We had booked on the next Welsh Highland Railway trip from Portmadog to Caernarfon.

The train was hauled by their workhorse Lyd and was one of their four summer holiday scheduled daily trips to Blaenau Ffestiniog from Portmadog.

The Ffestiniog Railway is a narrow gauge heritage railway, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park.
The railway is roughly 131⁄2 miles (21.7 km) long and runs from the harbour at Porthmadog to the slate mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, travelling through forested and mountainous scenery. The first mile of the line out of Porthmadog runs atop an embankment locally called the Cob.

The line was constructed between 1833 and 1836 to transport slate from the quarries around the inland town of Blaenau Ffestiniog to the coastal town of Porthmadog where it was loaded onto ships.

Steam was introduced from 1863. The earliest loco, Princess now sits in the bar of the tavern Spooners at the railway station (we had a good steak evening meal after our journey, along with a refreshing beer).

Restoration of the railway occurred from 1954 after some years in decline. Blaenau was reached in 1982. Restoration of locos then occupied all the willing workers (volunteers etc).

The dealings / interrelationship with the Welsh Highland Railway, is complex to say the least. Railway groups the world over can relate to the sagas that occurred! These days, to summarise the long and complicated process that occurred over many years, Ffestiniog essentially also run the Welsh Highland Railway, whose restoration was completed more recently (ie 2011) (the latter is now starting to become the stronger revenue stream). Both exit the same station at Portmadog.

Since restoration commenced in 1954, tourism has been the only significant source of income.Today the railway is promoted as one of The Great Little Trains of Wales, a joint marketing scheme launched in 1970 that encompasses ten narrow gauge railways in the country, mostly found in north and mid Wales.