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Geufron Terrace, BLAENAU FFESTINIOG, LL41 3BW

Blaenau Ffestiniog has a setting that must be almost unique in Britain for juxtaposition of houses and mountainside.

Houses on Dolgarregddu are pressed tightly against the scree-strewn slope of Garreg Ddu. On a fine day it looks almost romantic, but on a grey, wet day it is oppressive. Garreg Ddu is an intrusive mass of rhyolite of Ordovician age.

It's sad that this, once iconic, building is now in use as public toilets. However, this continued use is better than demolition, in my opinion. Some "classic" photographs, of c1880, were taken from close to this point. As you look past the former station building (in the right foreground), you will see a man walking past a white house. Between the man, and the house, you can see the line of a former incline, down which the loaded slate wagons were winched from one of the slate quarries.

It was difficult to place this photo because so much of the landscape has been changed. However this is the view looking up the incline to Rhiwbach & Maenofferen Quarries. Slate wagons would be hauled up & down, & at the base formed into trains for transportation down the Ffestiniog Rly to the harbour at Porthmadog or to Minffordd for transhipment to the GWR. The houses on the right are in Bodafon Terrace, the bridge carrying the road to them has been removed & the cutting filled in.

This station (the red surfaced car park in the centre of the photo) was the terminus of the Ffestiniog Railway. It handled much slate from the quarries east of the town and was served by the Rhiwbach Tramroad as well as a tramway from Bowydd and Diphwys Quarries. The modern station for both the Conwy Valley Line and the Ffestiniog Railway is on the other side of the road. For a century, from its construction in 1881, the Llandudno Junction-Blaenau line (built by L&NWR) had terminated a few hundred yards to the north, the possibility of a junction with the GWR line being thwarted by Ffestiniog Railway's ownership of the intervening land. In 1982 it became possible to join the two end on, but by then the old GWR line had become a mere rump, serving only the Trawsfynydd Nuclear Power Station. The Ffestiniog Railway also terminates in the old Central Station.

The Ffestiniog Railway's northern passenger terminus was at Duffws, 13¼ miles from Porthmadog and 700ft above sea level. Here, each of the station's two gables was decorated by a plaque bearing the Prince of Wales Feathers and the motto 'Ich Dien' which has always been used by the Railway as part of its heraldic device. Duffws station was closed in 1931, the passenger service terminating at the nearby GWR Exchange station. Duffws station building has survived but for many decades has been a council-operated public convenience, and its extensive goods yard a public car park.

The litter would suggest that no one these days takes a blind notice of a monolingual, English, sign which makes it plain that this is not a public thoroughfare. In reality it is the bottom end of the incline linking Bowydd Quarry with the old L&NWR station.

The small shunter, and two slate wagons are quite eye-catching for anyone driving through Blaenau Ffestiniog. The plinth is located beside a car park, near the site of the former Duffws station.

This huge hillside of slate provides a good view south-west over Blaenau Ffestiniog rooftops and the Tanygrisiau Reservoir beyond. A totally grey scene. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maenofferen_Quarry http://www.penmorfa.com/Slate/maenofferen%201975.html