Welsh Highland Railway

About

The Welsh Highland Railway (WHR; Welsh: Rheilffordd Eryri) is a restored 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in (597 mm) narrow-gauge heritage railway in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. It runs along a 25-mile (40.2 km) route from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passes through a number of popular tourist destinations including Beddgelert and the Aberglaslyn Pass. At Porthmadog it connects with the Ffestiniog Railway and to the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway.

In Porthmadog it uses the United Kingdom's only mixed gauge flat rail crossing. The restoration, which had the civil engineering mainly built by contractors and the track mainly built by volunteers, received a number of awards. Originally running from Dinas, near Caernarfon, to Porthmadog Harbour, the current line includes an additional section from Dinas to Caernarfon.

The original line also had a branch to Bryngwyn and the slate quarries around Moel Tryfan, which has not been restored. (This branch forms a footpath "rail trail", the lower section of which has been resurfaced and supplied with heritage notice-boards.) There is also the 3⁄4-mile (1.2 km) long Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, which runs from Porthmadog along the track bed of the former Cambrian...