Good article and of course, a great railway for any narrow gauge enthuisiast to visit.

This sentence is a bit misleading..

"When work at Porthmadog Harbour station is complete, possibly in time for next summer, travellers will be able to enjoy 64km of steam-hauled trains from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Caernarfon."

It is possible to make the journey this year. Issue is because congestion in Porthmadog the connection from the FR to the WHR (across the platform) is not good..

While FR trains can traverse the WHR, the WHR trains cannot traverse the
WHR because of loading gauge issues, so changing trains in Porthmadog will always be the norm, albeit with both trains in the station at the same time.

This Mallet which spent it's entire life in Java is also visiting at the moment:

http://www.isengard.co.uk/images/JPEGS/ ... 9-11BS.jpg


TH