Bala Lake Railway

Bala Lake Railway Rheilffordd Llyn Tegid
Alice at Llanuwchllyn, 18 July 2004
Locale	Wales
Terminus	Llanuwchllyn
Commercial operations
Name	Ruabon Barmouth Line
Built by	GWR
Original gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Preserved operations
Operated by	Rheilffordd Llyn Tegid Ltd
Length	4.5 miles (7.2 km)
Preserved gauge	2 ft (610 mm)
Commercial history
Opened	Between 1 December 1861 and 10 October 1867
Closed to passengers	18 January 1965
Closed	1968
Preservation history
Opened	1972

Bala Lake Railway
Legend
Ruabon to Barmouth Line Bala (Penybont)(originally Bala Lake Halt) Bryn Hynod Halt(closed 2011) Llangower Glan Llyn Halt Pentrepiod Halt Llanuwchllyn Ruabon to Barmouth Line

A Bala Lake Railway trip

The Bala Lake Railway (Welsh: Rheilffordd Llyn Tegid) is a narrow gauge railway along the southern shore of Bala Lake in Gwynedd, North Wales. The line, which is 4 ¹⁄₂ miles (7.2 km) long, is built on a section of the former standard gauge Ruabon - Barmouth GWR route that closed in 1965. Another section of the former permanent way is used by the Llangollen Railway. The Bala Lake Railway, which runs on 2 ft (610 mm)-gauge preserved rolling stock, is a member of the Great Little Trains of Wales.

History

Bala Lake Railway opened on 13 August 1972. The company, named Rheilffordd Llyn Tegid Ltd, was the first company in Wales to be registered exclusively in the Welsh language. In in its first season, it operated a small industrial diesel engine with two open carriages on 1 ¹⁄₂ miles (2.4 km) of track between Llanuwchllyn and Pentrepiod.

Extension work continued throughout this period with the help of local ex-British Rail employees. The line was extended to Llangower by the start of 1973. In 1975 the line reached a new temporary station at Pant-yr-hen-felin.^[1]

The following year the line reached Bala (Llyn Tegid), now known as Bala (Penybont). Expansion plans were to extend the line into Bala's town centre, with this final section opening in 1981. However, these plans were abandoned early in that year.^[2]

The company now has the largest collection of historic narrow gauge quarry locomotives built by the Hunslet Engine Company specifically for the slate industry in North Wales.

In 2010, the company revived plans to complete the final 0.75 miles (1.2 km) of the railway to Bala town centre. The Red Dragon Project, under the auspices of the Bala Lake Railway Trust, has been established to build the £2.5 million extension.^[3]

The stations along the line are:

• Llanuwchllyn, includes the main buildings, workshops and railway offices.
• Pentrepiod Halt, an operational request stop.
• Glan Llyn Halt, a limited-use station, open only during the Halloween and Santa Special train services.
• Llangower, principal intermediate station that all trains stop at. It has a passing loop for two-train services.
• Bryn Hynod Halt, a request stop that closed in 2011 (platform demolished in February 2012).
• Bala (Penybont), terminus located near the town of Bala.

Rolling stock

Maid Marian waiting with a train at Bala station in the rain.

Holy War seen in its red livery as it heads to Llanwchlyn in 1993; it is now painted blue.

Steam locomotives currently in use or stored on the line are:

• Maid Marian, works number 822 (in use). It has twice undergone full overhauls at the expense of a special supporters' society for railfans with a particular concern for this engine.^[4]
• Holy War, works number 779 (in use)
• Alice, works number 780 (in use)
• Winifred, works number 364 (in use). It was repatriated to the UK from a warehouse at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the USA in April 2012. It has since been restored to working condition.^[5]
• Diana, works number 1158 (in use). Built by Kerr Stuart and worked in Newtown, Powys
• George B, works number 680. Currently undergoing a lengthy rebuild.

All locos - with the exception of Diana - were built by the Hunslet Engine Company for the Dinorwic and Penrhyn Quarries. The numerous Hunslet slate quarry steam locomotives have led the railway to market itself as the home of the Hunslet brand.^[6]

Until late 2011, Peckett 0-6-0st Triassic was stored on the Bala Lake Railway, but has since been relocated to the Statfold Barn Railway due to storage space issues.^[7]

The four main diesel locomotives are:^[8]

• Meirionydd, a Bo-Bo diesel-hydrostatic locomotive built by Severn Lamb of Stratford-upon-Avon in 1973, and based on a Western class standard gauge locomotive outline
• Trigger (Bob Davies), a Baguley Drewery, works no. 780, which is the railway's main standby diesel, used to haul out of season trains, for yard shunting and goods or works train haulage, which was built as 2 ft 6in gauge for the Royal Navy at Fishguard, purchased by Pete Briddon's Yorkshire Engine Company, regauged to 2 ft, and named 'Bob Davies' in honour of a remarkable railwayman
• Chilmark, Ruston & Hornsby, works no. 194771, the oldest of the railway's diesels (a 40DL diesel mechanical 3-speed built in 1939 for the Air Ministry), used by the Royal Air Force for hauling explosives and ammunition at RAF Chilmark, Wiltshire
• Lady Madcap, a Ruston & Hornsby 20DL, which sees only occasional use for light shunting and ballast ploughing.

A new addition to the fleet is a track maintenance trolley in the style of a standard gauge Wickham trolley.

Current and former locomotives

See also

• British narrow gauge railways

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bala Lake Railway.

• Bala Lake Railway
• Ruabon to Barmouth (British Railways in the 1960s Sectional Appendix Extract) (via The Internet Archive)

Coordinates: 52°52′48″N 3°37′34″W / 52.88000°N 3.62611°W / 52.88000; -3.62611