Two Ffestiniog Railway 4-wheel carriages (Nos. 4 & 12) at Porthmadog Station in the 1930s
The Ffestiniog Railway or Rheilffordd Ffestiniog (previously spelled Festiniog Railway) is a narrow gauge railway running from Porthmadog Harbour Station to Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales. Built, owned and operated by the Festiniog Railway Company it opened in 1836 and continues to operate as a popular tourist attraction. The line was opened in 1836 as a carrier of slate from the quarries to the ports. Steam locomotives, including the famous Double Fairlies, and passenger trains were introduced in the 1860s. During the first half of the 20th century slate traffic declined but tourist traffic picked up. The line closed in 1946 but control of the company was obtained by a group enthusiasts and transferred to a charitable trust. The line was progressively re-opened (including the famous deviation) and continues to thrive as a popular tourist attraction. Carriage 4 was built by Brown, Marshall & Co of Adderley Park Birmingham. It is a single compartment closed carriage with knifeboard seating and a third class of capacity seven each side. It is believed to have been part of the first batch of narrow gauge passenger coaches built in the world for public service (along with Nos. 2, 3, 5 and 11), to designs assumed to have been made by Spooner. There is a possibility that carriage 4 may originally have been a second class vehicle. At some point this carriage had the panelling on the sides replaced with vertical matchboarding. The FR had two of these carriages, known colloquially as "Porthole Bugboxes", on account of the ventilators in the ends, as seen in the photograph .
Size: 4164px × 2547px
Location: Porthmadog Gwynedd Wales
Photo credit: © Digbydachshund / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: carriage, coach, festiniog, ffestiniog, gauge, gwyned, narrow, passenger, porthmadog, portmadoc, railway, rheilffordd, rolling, steam, stock, train, wales
