Ffestiniog Conwy

The 13 5 mile narrow gauge line was originally built to carry slate and for many years was worked by gravity We travel aboard one of the famous double Fairlie steam engines Merddin Emrys for a ride that is typically rocky in places The terrain changes from the wide open Cob at Porthmadog to the fertile wooded valley in the vale of Ffestiniog and the Snowdonia National Park to the slate capital of Wales itself Blaenau Ffestiniog Within the first mile of the former LNWR line on board a class 101 DMU we pass amongst the old mine and quarry workings and enter the 2¼ mile long Ffestiniog tunnel At the end of the tunnel is the wild and remote Lledr valley After Betwsycoed the line levels out and we dash along the Conwy Valley to Llandudno Junction on the Holyhead main line Finally we traverse the three mile long double track branch to Llandudno in 1991 still blockworked with semaphore signals Filmed in 1992