LLYFNI QUAY - back ground
As the public payed little attention to the auto layouts it was decided to
recycle them. This has lead to the Bete layouts;
Tal-y-Bont,
Holyport,
Drummore,
Port Isaac,
Skovdallund, and
San Rocco. But what to do
with Tram de la Frenesie's (below) quay board? I decided to revisit Pont Llyfni.
Place names are historic and hopefully correct for the railway era.
History in the 1820s the Nantlle Railway was built so the Nantlle slate quarries could compete with the Penrhyn Quarry with its new tramway built by Richard Pennant and the Llanberis quarries with their threat of a tramway to Dinorwic on the Menia Strait. The 42" gauge Nantlle Railway, actually a horse worked tramway, ran from Tal y Sarn to Caernarfon via Pen y Groes. In the 1850s the Llyfni Vales Railway and Harbour Company, effectively a branch, was proposed between Pen y Groes and a new harbour at Pont Llyfni.
As a harbour the mouth of the Afon Llyfni (above) has it problems it's only accessible at high tide and the river is shallow with exposed rocks about 200 yards upstream from the river mouth (below). In all probability the harbour would have been no more than a quay.
In 1865 the
Nantlle Railway was acquired by the Carnarvonshire Railway that in turn was
taken over by the London and North Western Railway {LNWR} in 1870. Between them
the railways converted the Nantlle Railway to a standard-gauge except for the
two miles east of the transhipment station at Tal y Sarn but called Nantlle. The
LNWR was merged into the London Midland and Scottish Railway {LMSR} in 1923 that
in turn merged into British Railways {BR} in 1948. The Nantlle Railway had a
passenger service 1856 to 1865 and the standard gauge from 1862 to 1964 except
Pen y Groes to Nantlle that closed to regular passenger traffic in 1932 and
excursion traffic in 1939.
To increase traffic on the line the Y Swan Quarry now ships gravel by rail and
the quay is used for outbound coal. Outbound coal traffic is implausible but
there was a colliery at Bodfean Mine, Llanystumdwy, Caernarfonshire and several
collieries on Anglesey that might have shipped via Llyfni Quay. See
Gazetteer and
Bibliography of the Mines and Quarries of North Wales.
Pontllyfni Halt and Llyfni Quay Halt are about 400 meter/quarter mile apart so a
senior porter staffs both halts and handle parcels etc.
The availability of the LNWR coaches, I want, have been put back to summer 2022
so the layout is photographed LMSR.