ISBN: 978-1906008727

Pages: 96

Illustrations: 144 monochrome plus 36 maps and track plans.

Date: May 2010

Cover: hardback

Size: 240x170mm portrait

Price: £15.95

Index: contents page

The latest volume in the Country Railway Routes series sees us in the north-west corner of Wales and tracing a route which takes us over lines that once belonged to the London & North Wesrtern Railway and the Cambrian Railway. We set off from Bangor, which is on the North Wales coast, adjacent to Anglesey, and head south-west down the Menai Strait to Caernarvon. On the way, we pass the northern terminus of the Padarn Railway which once carried slate from the quarries at Llanberis to Port Dinorwic, from where much of it was shipped. From Caernarvon, the route heads directly south across the base of the Lleyn Peninsular until it joins the former Cambrian Railway at Afonwen. From here we turn East on the Cambrian to Portmadoc. On our journey south from Caernarvon we pass three other lines. The first is the L&NWR branch line to Llanberis, at the end of which we stop to take trips on the Snowdon Mountain Railway and Llanberis Lake Railway. The second is the northern terminus of the Welsh Highland Railway at Dinas, the southern terminus of which we will see at Portmadoc. The third is the short L&NWR Nantlle Branch (serving the Coed-Madog Slate Quarry), which joins our line at Penygroes and up which we travel for a look at Nantlle. The book has its usual excellent format of interesting period pictures, maps of the route, timetables and ticket facsimiles.