The Welsh Highland Railway (Caernarfon)

The Railway Today

Caernarfon Station Photo Ben Fisher

A Garratt on the WHR Photo Ben Fisher

This ambitious 2' gauge railway is destined to be the longest narrow gauge railway in the country once the restoration is complete. Curiously the terminus in Caernarfon, which is in sight of the famous castle, is several miles from any part of the orginal Welsh Highland Railway! But from this superb location, in one of the tourist capitals of Wales the railway begins its journey.

Four miles from Caernarfon the trains arrive at the smart little station of Dinas, the terminus in the first few years of restoration. Following further hard work services now continue as far as Waunfawr giving a taste of the delights ahead when the railway once more runs through some of the greatest scenery in Britain on it's way to Porthmadog.

Once complete the line will be 25 miles in length so passengers could be spending a long time on the train and, accordingly, the passenger rolling stock offers the highest standards of comfort I have ever seen on Britains narrow gauge.

Not content with working on the longest narrow gauge project in Britain the WHR has by far the most powerful 2' gauge locomotives ever operated in Britain. The Garratt is a type of articulated loco which has three separate frames; a power unit at each end with running gear and powered wheels, similar to a conventional locomotive, while the central unit with boiler and cab has no wheels but is carried on the two power units. The design allows the carriage of huge amounts of fuel and water and a much larger boiler than could otherwise be mounted within the loading gauge, the resulting locomotive can be very large and powerful whilst still able to negotiate tight curves and fit a limited loading gauge.

The Welsh Highland Railway appear determined to make the exotic Garratts a symbol of the Route just as the Double Fairlie is synonymous with the Festiniog line, although in the case of the Garratts there is no historical reason for this!

The Garratts on the WHR were built in Britain for service overseas and include the very first Garratt (K1) built by Beyer Peacock in 1909 for service in Tasmania where it served for twenty years. Although K1 is of such historical significance three other Garratts built by Beyer Peacock for service in South Africa in 1958 will see more service than K1. Not all the trains are hauled by the Garratts as the railway also has a number of conventional steam and diesel locomotives.

Once completed, one of the highlights of the journey will be the spectacular section along the Aberglaslyn pass. Until recently the trackbed was used as a footpath and this section is well worth a visit on foot until we can once again see it from the train.

The Welsh Highland Railway Ltd. also have their own restoration project proceeding from the other end of the line at Porthmadog. Although they lack the luxury of lottery funding they too are restoring the railway from the other end and there is hope for rapid progress towards a meeting of the two projects and reopening of the entire line. This project has its own page on Narrow Gauge Pleasure which you can find here.

For further information:

Visit theWelsh Highland Railway (Caernarfon) web pages.

History and Origins

The history and origins of the railway are covered on a seperate page, this is because I now have a WHR page for each of the two ends of the railway, I look forward to the day they become one!