Nantlle Railway

Nantlle Railway

Horse-drawn slate wagon used on the Tramway, now preserved at the Welsh Slate Museum, Llanberis
Locale	Wales
Dates of operation	1828–1865
Successor	Carnarvonshire Railway
Track gauge	3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) and 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Headquarters	Penygroes

The Nantlle Railway (sometimes referred to as the Nantlle Tramway) was a Welsh narrow gauge railway built to carry slate from several slate quarries in the Nantlle Valley to the harbour at Caernarfon for export by sea. The line received its Act of Parliament in 1825 and was constructed by Robert Stephenson, son of George Stephenson. It opened in 1828 and was operated using horse power. Although built primarily for the transport of slate, the line provided a passenger service between Caernarfon and Talysarn from 1856 to 1865.

The railway was absorbed into the Carnarvonshire Railway in 1865 and later the London and North Western Railway. The central part of its route, from Pant, on the southern edge of Caernarfon to Tyddyn Bengam, a short distance north of Penygroes, was rebuilt in 1867, in places on an adjacent alignment, to single track standard gauge main line standards to allow the operation of the Carnarvonshire Railway's steam hauled trains through to Afon Wen.

This left 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge sections at both northern and southern ends of the line, with five miles of standard gauge in the middle. Slates were loaded onto narrow gauge wagons near the quarries and drawn by horses to Tyddyn Bengam, where the narrow gauge wagons and their contents were pushed onto standard gauge wagons, three at a time. A train of these piggy-back wagons was made up and hauled by a locomotive north to Pant, where the narrow gauge wagons and contents were pushed off the standard gauge wagons onto narrow gauge tracks and hauled by horses the last 50 chains (1.0 km) to the quayside at Caernarfon Harbour. This process was slow, costly and unpopular; it also led to pilfering and breakages.