Welsh Highland Phase 4 Sponsors' Day
May 16th 2009 - Report and Pictures

The fourth annual event for subscribers to the Phase 4 and New Trains Appeals was held on Saturday May 16th 2009, and gave a foretaste of not only the section to Hafod y Llyn which was due to open to the public a few days later, but also of the line on from there across the Traeth Mawr flatlands and to the outskirts of Porthmadog. Although the day's trains were not able to proceed across the Cambrian, where signalling to allow passenger trains was not yet in place, these were the first ever narrow gauge passenger trains all the way from Caernarfon to Porthmadog. With two Garratt-hauled trains running, using the normal sets minus the bike wagons, the day provided the best sample possible at this point of services over the full railway, minus the Cross-Town Link. No. 87 hauled the train for Gold and Silver sponsors, followed by no. 143 with the Bronze sponsors' train; the two crossed at Beddgelert, the first occasion two full sets had crossed there. The southbound workings picked up diesel Vale of Ffestiniog on the Caernarfon end of the trains at Hafod y Llyn, and ran topped and tailed to a point just north of the trap points protecting Cae Pawb crossing, adjacent to Gelert's Farm Works and at approximately the site of the rudimentary second Portmadoc New Station, set up in the 1930s to avoid the cost of crossing what was then the Great Western. The pictures below show how, as no. 87's train passed the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway's station at Pen y Mount, a WHHR train hauled by Gelert set off to run in parallel with the train from Caernarfon as far as the divergence of the two lines either side of Gelert's Farm. This gesture - widely appreciated on the sponsors' train - was repeated when no. 143's train arrived. On the return workings the steam locos ran round their trains at Hafod y Llyn before returning to Caernarfon. While both trains were standing at Beddgelert, a brief ceremony was held to mark sponsorship by Barter Books of Alnwick of one of the platform shelters.

During the event sponsors were invited to extend their monthly contributions or consider lump sum donations, with the specific aim of funding completion as soon as possible of the crossings at Pont Croesor, Snowdon Street and Britannia Bridge. The completion of these was awaiting recovery of monies owed by the Assembly Government for work in Porthmadog, which was delaying opening of the complete railway. Early indications suggested that extended contributions promised on the day would make useful inroads into this funding gap.

External galleries: (1) by Dale Williams, including many on-train pictures from the Bronze train; (2) by Oliver Bennett, including lineside pictures from Pont Croesor and points South.

YouTube video by William High: