Trawsfynydd and Blaenau Ffestiniog Railway

Let’s be honest. It was a Railway nobody needed in an area where the population is too thin to support volunteers and where the market is well served. Blaenau is not a tourist destination Caernarfon, Bettws, Porthmadog are.

Personally I think it will be better suited as a cycle track and that’s something that could push on to Cwm Prysor.




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Hang on, there must be a place on the team for Bramleyman too?

 

Not familiar with him?

 

I believe a certain infamous Inspection Saloon maybe suitable for the reopening of this line, once it's had "a bit of bodywork" of course...

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I thought that only one "kiss of death" was required - there's several potential such kiss-givers been offered up in the last few posts...

 

The engine or the year?

 

The velorail scheme died a death when they realised how much work was required to bring the formation up to a useable standard. It wasn't just the track. One of the major sticking points was a requirement the replace the fencing on much of the route.

Tim

 

And that would just be a usable standard for something weighing a few kg!

 

I still reckon that a velorail scheme is more viable than a full on standard gauge heritage line. For a start it would be a unique attraction in the UK, and something to add to the area for the days when its not bad enough weather to want to be completely indoors but still murky and damp enough that the beaches and mountains aren't enticing. Sure you'd have to clear a lot of undergrowth and sort a lot of fencing if you were to run the full length but the one we did in France was entertaining enough over a 3.5mile length - not sure you'd want to do the full length of this line and back - but in the longer term you could do it as an option with a middle point say at Maentwrog Road to turn back if you wanted. The cost of sorting the actual track would be minimal - odd sleeper replacement where its totally rotted so far as to leave the track out of gauge, but it doesn't need to be able to take anything heavy down it. Probably not going to make much money out of it at best as a commercial operation but might be a nice way of opening an old rail route up to be enjoyed.

Compared to the idea of bringing the track up to scratch to run trains on, then finding some suitable stock long after anything vaguely attractive has been snapped up by other lines, and hoping that the family that arrives in Blaenau for the day chooses you over the Ffestiniog - I guess there might be a few that really want the track, or really enjoy sitting in a café overlooking a disused nuclear power plant but its going to be hard going attracting trade. I stay in North Wales fairly regularly - a velorail would probably draw me and the family - a scruffy half baked heritage line with so many better options around wouldn't stand a chance.

 

I wonder whether the real sticking point with the velorail was that its unlikely to attract volunteers to do the grunt work.

Hypothetically if you'd signed a lease on a remote facility (lakeside café) near a disused line, you'd potentially look at that line as a means of attracting trade to your facility. If you try to open it as a velorail, chances are you'd have to fund all the costs of the work commercially. If you floated the idea of re-opening it as a steam line, you're fairly likely to find a few rose tinted spec wearers that see themselves literally chopping back the decay and bringing about a new age of the train. How much free labour and donated equipment has gone into this so far, and who stands to benefit financially if it works?

Cynic? Moi?

 

The velorail scheme was not related to the current shambles. It was explored by Antur Stiniog a local not for profit social enterprise. They have established the very popular mountain biking tracks in the area. The original aim was to run from Blaenau to Llan Ffestiniog. You will still need to address problems with the track bed as people need to be able to lift the velorail on and off the track. Not easy if you're stood in a swamp. The first section of line also has little room at the lineside letting people past. Hence the need for appropriate fencing.

Tim

 

If the line was to be used only for velorail, would it need fences at all?

 

Good to see this return to a debate rather than character assassinations.

 

Because it would have a 'Unique Selling Point'

There are quite a lot of ex railway cycle paths, in attractive countryside with cafes / pubs close by and while there is nothing wrong with doing the same at Blaneau, it wouldn't 'stand out' in the guidebooks.

While they do exist in France, I don't believe we have a Velorail in the UK - the first one to get going over here would thus benefit from the novelty factor thus potentially attracting more folk than an ordinary cycle path.

 

Clearly, there must be some reason that Network Rail have seen fit not to fully close and dismantle the line over the past 20 years, whether that be (as some have said) strategic retention in case traffic to the power station site restarts when the existing reactor is dismantled or an SMR built; whether it be just because of the expense of dismantling; or whether it be just for political reasons. Conversion for velorail use would, in addition to having a "USP" at present, keep the line in "mothballed" state and therefore satisfy whatever reasons NR have for keeping the track in situ.

 

I suspect the hope was that a next gen nuclear power station would be built at Trawsfynydd but governments dithered and there were always better locations.
So really there is no reason to keep the track, no point in extending National rail beyond Blaenau. The existence of the track, and the slippery sleepers, actually becomes an obstacle to use.

As for cycle paths, it would not be unique but actually penetration into the Snowdonia hills is rare (eh as there were not that many railways) and the WHR is no longer a possibility. As a cyclepath it is fairly flat to Trawsfynydd but then climbs to the summit (the Cwm Prysor section not necessarily in NR ownership). A cyclepath has the attraction of being uphill from Blaenau which is always nice for the unfit as it allows a freewheel back. But unless the maths stacks up and land is available for a car park/cafe somewhere in the National Park near the summit, it is always going to be a cycle path to nowhere, miles from anywhere. As a comparator, the cycle path from Caernarfon is little used, in my experience, beyond Pengroes to Bryncir.

Time to move on.

And I am glad the EMU has found a better home, it would just have rusted on a welsh hillside.

 

I've loved the Velorail idea since I first heard it, and a few friends have since been on similar projects in Thailand and elsewhere - has real potential to be a draw for people