Driver’s Eye View - Welsh Highland Railway (Rheilffordd Eryri) - Porthmadog to Caernarfon

With just one day left to film the Welsh Highland Railway and there were no trains scheduled to cover the full route from Porthmadog to Caernarfon. Claire who had kindly arranged for me to film over the previous two days worked out that I could film the complete route although no trains were booked to make the full journey. I attached a camera to the Porthmadog to Beddgelert train, at Beddgelert the locomotive that had worked the first train of the day from Porthmadog took the afternoon train on to Caernarfon, there was no return working, so I followed by car giving me several opportunities to film the train along the way. I arrived early at Porthmadog for a tasty breakfast in Spooners Cafe, before filming the train making its way over the Cob from Boston Lodge where the empty stock and locomotive had been stabled over night, my heart sank as it began to rain. I mounted the camera on the locomotive hoping that it was only a shower, as it turned out the rain persisted all day, I watched the video back on my computer expecting it to be a complete washout, to my surprise I enjoyed watching the resulting atmospheric journey, the mountains were at their moody best. The Welsh Highland Railway - ’WHR’ - (Welsh: Rheilffordd Eryri) is a restored narrow gauge located in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. The 25-mile (40.2 km) long 1 ft 11 ½  in (597 mm) gauge line connects Caernarfon to Porthmadog, the line passes through the scenic Aberglaslyn Gorge as well as serving the popular tourist village of Beddgelert. The railway shares Porthmadog Harbour station with the Ffestiniog Railway’s line to Blaenau Ffestiniog. One of the line’s most notable features is the United Kingdom’s only mixed gauge flat rail crossing. During restoration most of the civil engineering was undertaken by contractors whilst the track was laid by volunteers. The original WHR ran from Porthmadog to Dinas, where it connected with the standard gauge Caernarfon to Afon Wen line. The modern day WHR uses the track bed of the long closed Afon Wen line to access its modern Caernarfon terminus, located in the shadow of the city’s impressive castle, it is conveniently situated close to both the harbour and the town centre. Bryngwyn and the slate quarries around Moel Tryfan were served by a short branch off the original WHR, the old branch line trackbed is now footpath know as the “rail trail“. The 3⁄4-mile (1.2 km) long Welsh Highland Heritage Railway runs from its station close to the Cambrian Coast railway’s Porthmadog station along the trackbed of the former Cambrian Railways exchange siding to connect with the WHR main line at Pen-y-Mount junction. To watch videos I made documenting the reopening of the WHR, please click on the following links - Map 00:17 Google Earth/Maps Map 00:24 OpenRailwayMap - Use of the ’OpenRailwayMap’ mark is licenced by the OpenStreetMap Foundation To find out more about the railway or to book your own Welsh Highland Railway adventure please click on this link -