For over 100 years the Fairbourne Railway has been running the two miles between Fairbourne village to the mouth of the Mawddach Estuary, where it connects with the ferry to Barmouth. It is a stunning train journey alongside the most beautiful shoreline with a view of the countryside in the background.
The railway originally started out as a two foot gauge horse-drawn tramway initiated by Arthur McDougall, of McDougall’s flour fame. The track for the tramway was laid in 1895 to transport building materials for the construction of Fairbourne Village, but soon after passenger cars were introduced to transport people to the ferry station. In 1916 it was then converted by Wenman Joseph Bassett-Lowke, of Narrow Gauge Railways Ltd, to become a 15 inch gauge steam railway, helping to promote tourism in the area, however after several changes in ownership it closed in 1940. After funding the rebuilding of the line and the purchase of new steam locomotives, it was reopened in 1947 by John Charles Wilkins (of Wilkins & Mitchell, Darlaston). The line's heyday came during the 1960s and early 1970s, but the arrival of cheap foreign holidays resulted in a steady decline in passenger numbers during the 1970s and 1980s.
In The Fairbourne Railway Transition Years author, Graham Billington, sets out to tell the story of how the line was bought in 1984 by the Ellerton family. He describes the dramatic changes to the infrastructure, including the construction of a new station at Fairbourne, and the re-gauging of the track to 12¼ inches in 1986 to accommodate four new steam locomotives. Two of the new locomotives had been previously been run on the Réseau Guerlédan Chemin de Fer Touristique in Brittany, France. This line had been developed by John Ellerton in the 1970s, on the track-bed of a 129 km section of the former Réseau Breton line. The tourist attraction ran from May 1978 until September 1979, after which the Ellerton family mothballed the line until they found somewhere to relocate the railway – namely the Fairbourne Railway. As it is an important part of the story, the development of the Réseau Guerlédan is also covered in detail.
208 colour and 3 black & white photographs. 92 pages.