Penrhyn Quarry Railway Announces Phase 2!

PQR have put some information up on their website about phase 2 of track extension, in their news section.
Also check out the progress on the hunslet Gwynedd.
www.penrhynrailway.co.uk/

 

For those of us who want to see the railway return all the way to Port Penrhyn, isn't this a step in (literally) the wrong direction)? Since the railway divorced itself from the society over (what seemed to me) a really petty spat, do we have any idea whether the company is committed to a long-term return towards the coast? Or is it just going to be a jolly little ride as part of a post-industrial playground for tourists? "Zip World" - whatever next?

 

Unfortunately there is a bridge missing which currently prevents any extension towards Port Penrhyn. Although the mile or so run down to hen durnpike would be attractive enough it would be a short trip from nowhere to nowhere. With so many preserved railways in the area the PQR needs to offer something different so developing Felin Fawr as an actual destination in itself with a train ride into the quarries it served seems like a good idea to me. No doubt once that is established they can start heading towards Bangor.

 

I have no connection with Penrhyn, other than having lived in Bethesda for some years in my youth. Don't underestimate the problems that would be faced trying to get the line back to Bangor - road improvements and other alterations have obliterated the route in a couple of places; about 2-3 miles (at a guess) is a much used cycle track (and not wide enough to share space). Although the route is pleasant enough, it doesn't have the same views that you get from the other railways in the area, and getting into the quarry area itself does something that the other railways don't do. These new proposals still use part of the original route, and could provide a much needed attraction in an area that is struggling for jobs and economic survival.

Steve B

 

Sadly some of the comments above do not understand what the team at Felin Fawr are trying to achieve. Steve B's comments are spot on.

It would be nice to go down towards Port Penrhyn but being realistic there is one bridge to rebuild - St Anns Hill, the crossing at Hen Turnpike, another bridge crossing over the back road to Caerarfon and finally a tunnel under the A55. It is very hard to cost what this work would be so the sensible idea is to go up into the quarry where at least the trackbed still exists and there are fewer challenges to rebuilding the railway.

Sometimes people looks at rail preservation through rose tinted glasses and think that there are still huge pots of money to restore railways, that is certainly not the case in 2014. Today rail preservation has to be more realistic, more commercially minded and yes I know some people don't like this have a more business like approach to restoration. In the case of the Penhryn Quarry Railway (PQR) there were those in the rail preservation world who would have rather it taken ten years to restore a part of the PQR. Instead by hard work and mechanisation the railway was reopened in 2012. So some people don't like a jolly little ride as part of a post-industrial playground for tourists? "Zip World" Well money talks and if one day a decision is made to go North towards Port Penrhyn then it may be that the 'jolly little ride' contibutes to the rebuilding costs.

So please support Phase Two, at least the lein bach has come back to life.

 

It would be nice to support it, but if membership is only limited to 200 a year...

 

That seemed a bit odd to me as well. They are clearly doing some excellent work on the replica quarryman's coaches + slate/rubbish wagon restorations, so you'd have thought more money going into the kitty to fund that work would be welcome, even if a greater proportion of the members were "armchair" rather than "active".

Re the Phase 2 proposals, I also think that towards the quarry is the right way to go at present, particularly (with an enthusiast hat on) if it opens up an opportunity in future for putting ex Penrhyn Quarry locos + the restored rolling stock back into their "natural environment". If operating trains to "Zip World" funds that, then it can only see it being a good thing. If it funds any expansion in the opposite direction in due course, even better.

Re any extension towards Port Penrhyn, I'd disagree slightly with "exiled gog" in that it isn't actually "very hard to cost what this work would be".
As other preserved railways have shown, a decent feasibility study will usually generate a fairly reliable idea of the physical works and scale of the associated costs involved.
The problem tends to be that the size of such numbers when seen in the whole, immediately appear as being unsurmountable, particularly to a fledgling organisation, and at present there is probably little value in such a study being conducted whilst it would appear to fall into the "pipedream" category.
However, as schemes such as the FR deviation, Welsh Highland reconstruction, L&B revival etc. (which I'd suggest all fell firmly into the pipedream category once upon a time) prove, there is nothing at all wrong with having ambitions, but there is also value in walking before running.

Chris

 

Hi exiled Gog -
do the locals call the PQR 'y lein bach'? For me, 'lein' is feminine, so it would be 'y lein fach'. Indeed, I think the locals near the Vale of Rheidol call that line 'y lein fach'. Of course, borrowings from other languages do tend to have variable noun gender especially in the regional varieties. I know this is off topic, but as a Welsh-speaker and a linguistics academic this arcane info is of interest to me!!

 

In our family it was called lein fach, while the standard gauge line to Be'sda was lein fawr.