Porthmadog, originally Portmadoc until 1974 and locally as "Port", is a coastal town and community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd, Wales, and the historic county of Caernarfonshire. It lies 5 miles (8 km) east of Criccieth, 11 miles (18 km) south-west of Blaenau Ffestiniog, 25 miles (40 km) north of Dolgellau and 20 miles (32 km) south of Caernarfon. The community population of 4,185 in the 2011 census was put at 4,134 in 2019. It grew in the 19th century as a port for local slate, but as the trade declined, it continued as a shopping and tourism centre, being close to Snowdonia National Park and the Ffestiniog Railway. The 1987 National Eisteddfod was held there. It includes nearby Borth-y-Gest, Morfa Bychan and Tremadog.
The Welsh Highland Railway is a 25-mile (40.2 km) long, restored 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow gauge heritage railway in the Welsh county of Gwynedd, operating from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passing through a number of popular tourist destinations including Beddgelert and the Aberglaslyn Pass. At Porthmadog it connects with the Ffestiniog Railway and to the short Welsh Highland Heritage Railway. In Porthmadog it uses the United Kingdom's only mixed gauge flat rail crossing.
The North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways (NWNGR) was a railway company that planned to build a number of inter-connected 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow-gauge railways across North Wales. The first two of these lines – jointly known as the "Moel Tryfan Undertaking" – were authorised by act of Parliament, the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways Act 1872 and were built and opened in the 1870s. The original main line ran from Dinas Junction to Bryngwyn and opened in 1877. The second line was a branch from Tryfan Junction to South Snowdon, though shortly after opening, the company designated the Tryfan Junction to Bryngwyn section as the branch, and the Dinas Junction to South Snowdon section as the main line.
Pennal is a village and community on the A493 road in southern Gwynedd, Wales, on the north bank of the River Dyfi, near Machynlleth.
The Croesor Tramway was a Welsh, 2 ft narrow gauge railway line built to carry slate from the Croesor slate mines to Porthmadog. It was built in 1864 without an Act of Parliament and was operated using horse power.
The Porthmadog cross town link is a section of the 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow gauge Welsh Highland Railway, specifically built to link with the Ffestiniog Railway in Porthmadog, and runs along partly what was called the Junction Railway, previously existing as part of the original Welsh Highland Railway. This had been removed some time after that railway closed in 1936.
The Gorseddau Tramway was a 3 ft narrow gauge railway built in Wales in 1856 to link the slate quarries around Gorseddau with the wharves at Porthmadog. It was an early forerunner of the Gorseddau Junction and Portmadoc Railway and subsequently the Welsh Highland Railway.
The Rhiwbach Tramway was a Welsh industrial, 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow gauge railway connecting the remote slate quarries east of Blaenau Ffestiniog with the Ffestiniog Railway. It was in use by 1862, and remained so until progressively closed between 1956 and 1976. The route included three inclines, one of which became the last operational gravity incline in the North Wales slate industry. The tramway was worked by horses and gravity for much of its existence, but a diesel locomotive was used to haul wagons on the top section between 1953 and its closure in 1961.
Dinorwic quarry is a large former slate quarry, now home to the Welsh National Slate Museum, located between the villages of Llanberis and Dinorwig in Wales. At its height at the start of the 20th century, it was the second largest slate quarry in Wales, after the neighbouring Penrhyn quarry near Bethesda. Dinorwic covered 700 acres (283 ha) consisting of two main quarry sections with 20 galleries in each. Extensive internal tramway systems connected the quarries using inclines to transport slate between galleries. Since its closure in 1969, the quarry has become the site of the National Slate Museum, a regular film location, and an extreme rock climbing destination.
The Mawddwy Railway was a rural line in the Dyfi Valley in mid-Wales that connected Dinas Mawddwy with a junction at Cemmaes Road railway station on the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway section of the Cambrian Railways.
Narrow-gauge railways were used extensively in the slate industry of Great Britain, especially in Wales. Many quarries had internal tramways, some using many dozens of miles of track. Others had private lines that stretched from the quarry to transhipment points on local railways, rivers, roads or coastal ports.
The Deeside Tramway was a gravity and horse-worked, 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge industrial railway connecting the slate workings on the Dee valley with the main road at Glyndyfrdwy and later the Great Western Railway's Ruabon-Dolgellau railway. It was one of the last tramways in regular use to use wooden rails covered in iron sheaths.
Oakeley quarry is a slate quarry in the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, north Wales. It was the largest underground slate mine in the world, and had 26 floors spanning a vertical height of nearly 1,500 feet (460 m).
The Blaen y Cwm quarry was a slate quarry located east of Blaenau Ffestiniog in Wales. It was first worked in some time between 1813 and 1818 and sporadically after that until 1914. The quarry was connected to the Ffestiniog Railway at Duffws Station via the Rhiwbach Tramway.
The original Welsh Highland Railway (WHR) owed its existence to the narrow gauge railways and tramways built to serve commercial slate traffic from slate quarries and other mineral extraction operations along its route.
Garndolbenmaen is a village in the county of Gwynedd, Wales. It lies near the A487, approximately 6 miles (10 km) north west of Porthmadog, in the community of Dolbenmaen, which has a population of 1,300. The closest villages are Dolbenmaen and Bryncir. The Papur Bro, the local Welsh language paper, is called Y Ffynnon . The village itself has a population of around 300.
Fron-Boeth and Pant Mawr quarries were two closely related and interconnected quarries on the western slopes of Moelwyn Mawr in Gwynedd, North Wales. Pant Mawr operated from around 1850 to 1879, and was partly re-opened in 1886 when it was amalgamated with Fron-Boeth. Both quarries closed during the First World War. Finished product was transported to the slate quays of Porthmadog by the Croesor Tramway.
The Cwm Ebol quarry was a slate quarry about 1 mile (1.6 km) north west of the village of Pennal in Mid Wales. It operated from about 1860 to about 1906. It was the last Welsh slate quarry connected only to a trans-shipment point instead of directly to a railway.
Gorsedd normally refers to:
Hugh Beaver Roberts was a solicitor, originally based in Bangor, Caernarfonshire who became an entrepreneur involved in the construction of narrow gauge railways and the ownership of slate quarries in North Wales during the second half of the 19th century.
