The forerunner of the WHR was the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways, Railways because it was intended to criss-cross Snowdonia and beyond with a network of lines similar in concept to the Ffestiniog Railway. Unfortunately only a small part of this great scheme was ever completed, but it kept the plural in its title. It had a gauge of 1ft 11.5in (or thereabouts) and ran for 9 miles from a junction with the LNWR Afon Wen branch at Dinas near Caernarfon, to Rhyd Ddu at the foot of Mount Snowdon. It was a general carrier, with a branch to Bryngwyn which served the local slate trade. For most of its existence, it was destitute. The line opened in 1877, staggered on until 1916 and became part of the WHR in 1922.
The WHR arose phoenix-like from the ashes of the NWNGR. It opened from Dinas Junction through Beddgelert to the Festiniog Railway's Portmadoc Harbour Station in 1923 and was some 23 miles long. The northern part adopted the trackbed of the NWNGR, the bit in the middle was based on the unfinished works of the never-completed Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway and the southern part from Croesor Junction into Portmadoc (as was) adopted the trackbed of the Croesor Tramway. It had a close relationship with the Festiniog Railway, the two lines being under the same management for much of the existence of the WHR, with the FR actually leasing the WHR towards the end. Sadly the WHR was a victim of road transport and the 1930s depression and never realised its potential. It closed in 1936/7.
Since 1997, the reborn Ffestiniog Railway has been rebuilding the WHR, starting with a section of the erstwhile LNWR Afon Wen branch (which usurped the Nantlle Tramway) from Caernarfon to Dinas Junction, and thence on the old NWNG trackbed to first to Waunfawr, and then during August 2003 reaching Rhyd Ddu at the end of the old NWNGR, a distance of some 12miles.
In parallel with this northern reconstruction, the WHR(1964) co. is also rebuilding the line from Porthmadog towards Pont Croesor, and has an extensive engineering-base at Gelert's Farm on the edge of Porthmadog.
For more information about the railways, either see their respective web-sites: WHR(C), WHR(P), or consult some of the reference works.
These modules have developed over a number of years, orginally to coincide with the opening of the new line from Caernarfon to Dinas Junction. The module underwent a major upgrade at the time of the extension of the WHR to Waenfawr, at the suggestion of John Savage, and has since evolved slightly as the real WHR heads towards Rhyd Ddu.
The modules present a variety of scenes from the Welsh Highland Railway and its predecessor the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways. In date, the scenes range from the 1900's, through the 1920's to c.2000 and on into the future.
Three basic scenes are presented:
- Dinas Junction
- Waenfawr/Waunfawr
- Beddgelert Station
With:
- Glan-yr-afon
- Pen-y-Mount and
- Hafod-y-Llyn
available with backdrops as Add-on modules.
The scenes are defined as an hierarchy of Custom Scenes, although they will work equally well as Narrow Gauge scenes.
About the Bitmaps The locomotives and stock are all drawn to a scale of 5 pixels to the foot, almost all from scale drawings.
The stations are all scaled from photographs, some taken specially, others from books. They are therefore of dubious accuracy, but I think they are representative.
256 colour bitmaps are used, generated on a machine with 16-bit colour resolution.
To get the best out of this module you really need at least an 800x600 monitor, though 1024x768 is preferable.
Acknowledgements Thanks once again to Mark Goodspeed for the Screen Saver, and for his continued interest in enhancing and refining it.
This module has been a collaborative effort. John Savage provided the original spur for me to get on and update and re-issue the WHR module and provided endless encouragement throughout the process: he suggested all the future types of carriage, producing sample bitmaps and scenes in many cases. Thank-you John.
References The following publications were useful in the preparation of this module:
- Narrow Gauge Railways in South Caerns (vols 1 & 2) by JIC Boyd. Oakwood Press
- Portrait of the Welsh Highland Railway by P Johnson. Ian Allan
- An Illustrated History of the Welsh Highland Railway by P Johnson. OPC
- Welsh Highland Railway - a Pictorial Guide. WHR(64) Ltd
- Festiniog Railway - A View From the Past by P Johnson. Ian Allan
- Branch Lines Around Portmadoc by Mitchell et al. Middleton Press
- Narrow Gauge Railway Modelling by D Boreham
- Narrow Lines Extras - publications of the 7mm NG Association
- The Narrow Gauge No.118 - the NGRS Journal
- Narrow Lines Extra No.8. The 7mm Narrow Gauge Association
- Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Modelling Review, Issues 27 & 39
- Continental Modeller, Various Issues
- Model Railway News, Jan 1966
- Model Railways, Oct-1976
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| Basic Module |
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| Addin 1 - Glan-yr-afon |
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| Addin 2 - Pen-y-Mount |
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| Addin 3 - Hafod-y-Llyn |
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Waenfawr © Mark Goodspeed |
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Suitable for Screens 800 to 1024 pixels wide |
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Glan-yr-afon (Add-in 1) © Aidan Stell |
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Suitable for Screens 800 to 1024 pixels wide |
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Cnicht (Pen-y-Mount) © Mark Goodspeed |
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Suitable for Screens 800 to 1600 pixels wide |
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Aberglaslyn Pass and Snowdon © Aidan Stell |
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Suitable for Screens 800 to 1024 pixels wide |
© 2004 Aidan Stell