Blaenau Ffestiniog
Wales
Gauge : 2ft
Status : Ceased
Although a very small length of railway is still in use at Maenofferen, for many years much of area was covered with narrow gauge tracks, using steam, diesel, battery electric, and overhead electric.
(Click on images for full size picture)
Taken back in 1967, a lovely bleak shot, with the slate waste heaps as a backdrop. An old BEV battery loco pushes a couple of slabs of uncut slate into Llechwedd mills.
In 1982, showing the usual weather conditions high up in the hills behind Blaenau, a Wingrove and Rodgers battery loco pulls away with a rake of waste wagons. This photo was taken up at Maenofferen Mills.
Just a few yards away from the previous photograph, but taken in 1969, an unidentified Simplex pushes a loaded train of cut and dressed slate around the corner of the hillside, for lowering down the incline.
A little further down the hillside from the Maenofferen mills, Llechwedd quarry had used the frames and cabs of two steam locomotives to build two overhead electric locos. They were called the Eclipse, and the Coalition. This loco was the Eclipse, seen in 1974.
The same loco was photographed 7 years earlier, at the head of one of the inclines. Both the Eclipse, and the Coalition are 'preserved' at the Llechwedd Visitor Centre.