The Porthmadog cross town link is a section of the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

Welsh Highland Railway The Welsh Highland Railway (WHR; ) is a restored Narrow-gauge railway, narrow-gauge heritage railway in the Welsh county of Gwynedd. It runs from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passes through a number of popular tourist destinations includi ...

, specifically built to link with the

Ffestiniog Railway The Ffestiniog Railway () is a heritage railway based on Narrow-gauge railway, narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia#Snowdonia National Park, Snowdonia National Park. The ...

Porthmadog Porthmadog (), originally Portmadoc until 1972 and known locally as "Port", is a coastal town and community (Wales), community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd, Wales, and the historic counties of Wales, historic county of Caernarfonshire. It li ...

, and runs along partly what was called the Junction Railway, previously existing as part of the original Welsh Highland Railway. This had been removed some time after that railway closed in 1936. It has been built using the new powers obtained by the

and runs from

Harbour station TD Station (), formerly known as Harbour Station, is an arena located in the uptown area of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The arena is the home of the Saint John Sea Dogs of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. It was once the home o ...

on the Ffestiniog Railway to Pen-y-Mount Junction close to on the

Welsh Highland Heritage Railway The Welsh Highland Heritage Railway is a short reconstructed heritage railway in Gwynedd, Wales. Its main station is in Porthmadog railway station (Welsh Highland Heritage Railway), Porthmadog. History The origins of the WHHR lie in a small g ...

. The route is as follows: * Junction with the Ffestiniog Railway at

. * Cross Porthmadog High St and the

River Glaslyn is a river in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. While not of great significance in terms of its length (about ), it is one of Gwynedd's primary rivers, and has greatly influenced the landscape in which it flows. It has its source in Glaslyn, a ci ...

across the Britannia Bridge with road traffic stopped by lights when trains pass. * Around the back of the former

Wilko Wilko.com Limited (trading as Wilko) is a British Variety store, variety retailer. It was founded as Wilkinson by James Kemsey Wilkinson and Mary Cooper in 1930 as a hardware retailer, opening its first store in Leicester. In 1972, Tony Wil ...

now B&M supermarket. As such this is a deviation from the original line, that broadly speaking went in front of what is now the supermarket. * Across the back streets, in front of the old mill. * Across the

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

Cambrian Line The Cambrian Line (), sometimes split into the Cambrian Main Line () and Cambrian Coast Line () for its branches, is a railway line that runs from Shrewsbury in England, westwards to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli in Wales. Passenger train services ...

on the level. This is the only

mixed gauge Dual gauge railroad track has three or four rails, allowing vehicles of two track gauges to run on it. Signalling and sidings are more expensive to install on dual gauge tracks than on two single gauge tracks. Dual gauge is used when there i ...

flat rail crossing in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. * Along the track bed of the Welsh Highland Railway. * Junction just north with Welsh Highland Heritage Railway to . For reference, the Junction Railway was empowered to run: * Junction with the Ffestiniog Railway at

Harbour Station TD Station (), formerly known as Harbour Station, is an arena located in the uptown area of Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The arena is the home of the Saint John Sea Dogs of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. It was once the home o ...

. * Cross Porthmadog High St and the

across the Britannia Bridge with

street running A street running train is a train which runs on a track built on public streets. The rails are embedded in the roadway, and the train shares the street with other users, such as pedestrians, cars and cyclists, thus often being referred to as ru ...

. * a short small curve onto Madoc Street to join to the existing

Croesor Tramway The Croesor Tramway was a Wales, Welsh, narrow gauge railway line built to carry slate from the Croesor slate mines to Porthmadog. It was built in 1864 without an act of Parliament and was operated using horse power. The tramway was absorbed i ...

line which was taken over by the

. The line reopened on 8 January 2011, linking the

with the

allowing passenger trains to run between and .

References

External links

{{Coord, 52.9242, -4.1263, display=title} Ffestiniog Railway Welsh Highland Railway Street running 1 ft 11½ in gauge railways in Wales Porthmadog