Alternative Histories

If there's one part of the Festiniog which really tantalises me it's the abandoned former track bed leading from Dduallt station to the Old Moelwyn Tunnel.

I suppose I'm not unusual in that.  I mean, why else would there be so many heritage railways which have been restored from dereliction if it wasn't that enthusiasts became fixated on the idea of seeing trains run again along those pathways that have been reclaimed by nature?

I've often looked at the stub siding which continued straight on behind the signal box at Dduallt and wondered what might have happened if the FR had never been to surrender the old route through the Ystradau Valley in the 1950s. 

What's the alternate history, and how might it have come about?

How about instead of the Ffestiniog Power Station being built as the UK's first pumped-storage hydroelectricity scheme the power-that-be decided it would be simpler to dust off the pre-war proposals to install the technology at the Loch Sloy station next to Loch Lomond.

That would also have been a 360 MW (megawatt) installation, the same as Tanygrisiau - instead it was built with less than half the capacity and cannot pump the water back up the mountain after generating, relying on rainfall to replenish its supply.

What might have happened on the FR if the line was never flooded by the lower reservoir?

Here's my guess.

I don't believe the FR would have raced back to Blaenau as fast as it could.

My reading of history is that Alan Garraway was a pragmatic manager and was very insistent with the Board that once the railway had re-opened to Tan y Bwlch in four short years it was essential to pause and consolidate.

He knew the track was only-just serviceable in many places and required proper re-engineering.  

The same went for the locomotives and rolling stock, too.

He also knew this took money, and the further each train travelled the fewer payloads it could carry each day.  Increased fares from a longer journey would not necessarily bring in as money.

There was a sweet spot where you maximised revenue to a given amount of wear and tear, and Tan y Bwlch was the place.

It took a full decade to reopen to the temporary terminus at Dduallt.  During that period work had also begun on the Deviation, and additional locomotives and new carriages appeared, but I don't think it could have been achieved substantially faster than that.

And what of the locomotives and carriages?

The size of FR rolling stock had always been limited by the bore of the Moelwyn Tunnel, so the assumption may be that trains would remain at the dimension of the 'Bowsider' stock.

The abandonment of the old route meant it was Garnedd Tunnel which becomes the de facto limit, and very cautious efforts were made to nibble away inside it, but its geology is precarious.

However it was enough for the Barn carriages built in the 1960s to pass through.

The FR had strong links with the military at this time.  Remember how army engineers would come and lend a hand with the efforts to rebuild the line to Dduallt.

Is it possible they could have been enticed to come and practice their dynamiting skills opening up the old tunnel a little?

After all, the Deviationists found a way to blast their own tunnel by hiring in three mining engineers who completed that job in the space of two years.

So perhaps the FR may have reached Blaenau some time in the 1970s, and probably terminated next at the Stesion Fein site next to BR, because the roads around that area would probably not have been rebuilt in the same way if the power station wasn't there.

We'd perhaps still have another magnificent period piece station at Tanygrisiau, and gravity trains could run all the way from Blaenau Ffestiniog still.

Would that be a better FR?

What do you think?