Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway scoops prestigious top award

The Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway have been honoured with the Peter Manisty Award for Excellence, the Heritage Railway Association's most prestigious award, which was presented to the Ffestiniog Team that has rescued, restored and now operates, the railway's unique gravity slate train.

The team is based at the railway's Boston Lodge Works, which is currently undergoing £4m heritage development project, and so far, has rescued over 200 wagons.

They are thought to be the largest collection of heritage wagons indigenous to a particular railway and can be seen during special events held at the railway throughout the year.

The Peter Manisty Award is only awarded for exceptional achievements in the heritage railway world and is not granted every year.

The Ffestiniog's submission included work to preserve a gravity slate train, the construction of a building to house 200 wagons, the creation of a workshop in the original forge building at Boston Lodge, and all the work required to operate the train safely in the 21st Century.

As well as running an enormously popular tourist railway, the Ffestiniog Team have been working for nearly 40 years to preserve North Wales' slate heritage. The Ffestiniog Railway owes its existence to the need to transport slates from quarries in Blaenau Ffestiniog to the sea.

The line is an engineering miracle, as it is on a continuous gentle gradient for some 13 miles, which allowed loaded slate wagons to travel to the port by gravity, whilst the empty wagons were hauled back up the hill by teams of ponies.

This arrangement was highly successful and lasted until 1863, when steam engines replaced the ponies. There were over a thousand wagons, which were maintained in the oldest part of the workshops at Boston Lodge works. These buildings are now being used for the same wagon maintenance work that kept them going during the original railway operation.

So that the story of the early railway can once again be told, the buildings that remain from the original railway are currently being restored and missing buildings recreated. The project is being funded jointly by the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway Trust, The Ffestiniog Railway Society and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and will give visitors the opportunity to learn more of the history, become actively involved, and through skills workshops learn heritage skills.

The project is now in progress and the hope is that visitors will be able to view it in around 18 months' time.

This summer, it is expected that local residents and lottery players will be able to view progress with the project on Hard Hat tours.

Paul Lewin, FfWHR Director and General Manager comments: “The award could not come at a better time. The efforts of this team over more than thirty years are truly outstanding and it is more than overdue that their contribution to railway conservation should come into focus.

“The team involved are one of the longest standing and most committed in the world of railway preservation. We are working hard to tell our story of the Ffestiniog Railway's part in the slate industry world heritage site.
“The gravity train really brings that alive and shortly visitors will be able to hear the full story, learn new skills and get involved, but for now we will be taking a little time to celebrate this award and the achievements of over three decades work.”