A
Glimpse of the Early Days of the North Wales
Narrow Gauge Railway
My
grandfather, John Williams, was born in the village
of Rhostryfan in 1872. He lived within 200 yards
of the spot where the station of the North Wales
Narrow Gauge Railway was built in 1877. In 1943 he
published his autobiography Hynt Gwerinwr (The Story
of a Country Man) which begins with a description
of his early life in Rhostryfan. He left school at
13 and went to work in the quarry on Moel Tryfan.
His book tells the story of how he left Wales for
Liverpool at the age of 17 in 1890. He worked in
the Liverpool area for ten years then moved to London
to work in a roofing business, first as a foreman
and later a manager. In 1923 he started his own roofing
contractor business which prospered greatly in the
1920s. The business was run successfully by him with
his two sons, who continued the business after his
retirement. In addition to his success in business
he became well known in Wales by writing a regular
column from London to a Welsh newspaper and also
through being a co-editor of a London Welsh monthly
journal Y Ddolen (The Link). He was also a poet of
some standing. In the early chapters of his book
he makes several references to the railway which
throw light on how it worked and its impact on the
community. I can also recall other things he told
me about its operation. In 1997 I translated his
autobiography from Welsh and what follows is based
on extracts from this translation which refer to
the railway. He
records that:
About
1877 the narrow gauge railway was built from Dinas
through Rhostryfan to Bryngwyn, and that was the
main connection between the area and the world outside.
It was only on Saturdays that a bus ran along the
road to the town - Caernarfon - it was a horse-drawn
carriage carrying eight to ten people. As a rule
the men had to walk up the hill on the way home leaving
the women only for the load. Most people used to
walk the four miles to the town and back. There was
nothing to carry travellers home after seven in the
evening and it was only in summer that a train ran
as late as that. In its first years, after 1877,
the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway worked to strict
rule, a Master was kept at every station, signals
were operated when trains came up or down. The station
was kept clean and tidy and woe betide any child
who went there without reason. But degeneration came
soon.
The
Rhostryfan Station Master (who also worked as a cobbler
in the generous free time he enjoyed while waiting
for the trains) was moved away. The station was then
chiefly cared for by a man who worked as the guard
on the train from Tyddyn y Gwŷdd (Tryfan Junction)
to Bryngwyn. His name was Owen Benjamin Thomas.
I
first remember him at Caer Moel and he used to come
up to the chapel at Rhos. He was kind and full of
fun. When he married he came to live at Bryn Hyfryd,
Rhostryfan. Between one thing and another he was
pretty busy all his days, but in between times he
had leisure to care for the large number of birds
he kept at Tyddyn y Gwŷdd station. As he had
to work as Guard and as Station Master at both Rhostryfan
and Tyddyn y Gwŷdd it was essential that he
arrived at Rhostryfan station before the train came
down from Bryngwyn, to issue tickets to the travellers.
After this he would rush back to Tyddyn y Gwŷdd
ahead of the train. To enable him to do this he had
a little wagon (commonly called the trolley) and
as there was an incline all the way from Bryngwyn
to Rhostryfan and on to Tyddyn y Gwŷdd no engine
power was needed to drive the trolley down, but it
had to be drawn back to Bryngwyn at the tail of the
train. Because of Owen Thomas' good nature the local
boys were welcome to ride on the little trolley from
Rhostryfan to Tyddyn y Gwŷdd. Although the little
truck, in our minds travelled fearfully fast and
there was neither arm nor side to keep us from falling
off, I have no recollection of any mishap to any
of the boys on those rapid rides. Of course a trip
on the trolley required the young travellers to make
themselves useful in doing little jobs for Owen Thomas,
as far as I remember they were all willing.
Every
boy had to be alert especially when Owen Thomas
said something or other. One day a fairly credulous
lad
came into the station and Owen Thomas asked him
with a serious face, "Did you hear about the big
trouble yesterday?". "No",
said the boy. "Llanberis
lake caught fire" said Owen Thomas seriously
again. When the poor lad returned home and reported
on the "great trouble" to his mother,
he was scolded for believing Owen Thomas' tall
story! When
the trolley was on its way from Rhostryfan to Tyddyn
y Gwŷdd it sometimes happened that mountain
ponies had wandered onto the track, and if he had
any boys with him Owen Thomas would yell "Lions,
lions! Bears, bears! Help what shall we do?" One
of the Forty farm dogs had the habit of running after
the trolley barking. "Guns, boys, guns!" OT
would shout and on the word would start pelting the
dog with stones already placed on the trolley for
the purpose. When with one thing and another a busy
time came, Owen Thomas would say to the lads "It's
very busy here today. Two huge loads of cockles just
in from Llangernyw". We knew nothing of the
geographical location of that place, as far as we
knew it could have been the best place for cockles
in the whole land! Once
when one of the mothers of Rhostryfan was intending
to go to Caernarfon by train, a boy was sent to the
station to ask Owen Thomas not to let the train go
until his mother had arrived. At the sound of the
train approaching, Owen Thomas asked the boy "Where
is your Mam?" "At home" he said. "Well,
what was she doing?" he enquired again. "Starting
to dress!" replied the boy. There was enough
good nature in Owen Thomas to meet the mother's request,
and rarely did he tire of waiting although sometimes
the wait would be long. Owen Thomas pretended that
he could speak many languages and many a lad listened
to him with great amazement talking like the people
of East Africa, when it was only empty babble! On
Saturday mornings a number of us used to go to the
station to meet the ten o'clock train that would
bring some travellers from afar. Owen Thomas fulfilled
all the duties while the train was in the station.
The train usually consisted of about a dozen slates
wagons and one or two passenger coaches. I remember
once that after the train had started, with a thunderous
roar as usual, the Guard stood at the door of his
carriage and yelled "Hey, Tommy, go to the bottom
shop and tell them there's a chest of tea at the
station for Lowri Thomas."
Because
of the noise of the train the message was not correctly
heard and so the lad went to the shop and announced "Owen
Thomas says there are stakes of beef for you at the
station!"
Image: The
original Snowdon Ranger and train at Dinas Junction
in 1895.
He
moved from Bryn Hyfryd to Cae Garw and brought up
a house full of children, but early this century
he moved again to Tŷ'n-y-Coed in the area of
Nant y Garth and it was there that he spent the rest
of his life. On account of his willingness to do
a favour, his wit and his kind words, a whole generation
remembered him with high regard and affection. Because
of the advent of the motor car, the train stopped
carrying passengers after 1914. I think it was the
LNWR Time Table of 1913 that was the last to give
train times for Rhostryfan.
John
Williams' memory of the opening of the line was good.
Records show that the first section of the line to
open was from Dinas to Bryngwyn. This was opened
for mineral and goods traffic on 21 May 1877 and
passenger traffic began on 15 August the same year.
The Bryngwyn branch left the main line at Tryfan
Junction and was busy with slate traffic from the
quarries above Bryngwyn, the main revenue earner
for the railway. It is interesting to note that Tryfan
Junction is called Tyddyn y Gwŷdd (Weaver's
Cottage). Clearly this is what the local people called
this isolated station. Llangernyw is a small inland
village in Denbighshire (Clwyd) and is certainly
not famous for cockle fishing!
Discreetly
John Williams relates the story about a mother asking
the train to wait without identifying who the mother
was. In fact some years later his own wife did the
same thing! When on holiday from London with the
family in Rhostryfan she sent Arthur (my uncle) to
the station asking the train to wait. And it did!
The
trolley was clearly a device to enable Owen Thomas
to staff the whole branch. He used to attach it to
the tail of the train and travel with the train all
the way up to Bryngwyn. There he would issue tickets
to any wanting to travel before scooting down the
incline to Rhostryfan to issue tickets to any travellers
there. It was on the next section from Rhostryfan
down to Tryfan Junction that the boys enjoyed their
thrills on the trolley. Frequently there was only
one engine available at Dinas to run the trains and
when this was the case the custom was to put the
coaches for the Bryngwyn branch in front of the engine.
The train then ran from Dinas Junction to Tryfan
Junction where the main train was uncoupled while
the engine pushed the front coaches up to Bryngwyn
before running light back to Tryfan Junction to pick
up the rest of the train for its journey to Waun
Fawr and beyond. The Guard on the Bryngwyn coaches
would release the brake when it was time for the
return journey to Dinas. He would halt the train
at Rhostryfan and at Tryfan Junction, but since there
was a gradient all the way to Dinas no motive was
needed.
In
1877 a new house called Talybont was built for John
Williams' family in Rhostryfan but the builder was
delayed and it was not ready until October. Since
the family had committed to leave their old home
at Chapel House, they went to lodge for a time with
Owen Gruffydd through whose land the brand new railway
line passed.
Owen
Gruffydd of Tan y Gelynen was a man born in 1797
and who, throughout his long life, retained many
of the characteristics of the 18th century. He was
reputed to be one of the men who established the
Methodist Chapel in Rhostryfan in 1820, but another
common opinion about him was that he had spent the
early part of his life in licentious and loose living.
He used to boast about his work as the head slaughterman
at Menai Bridge market at one time. After his Christian
conversion, however, he became somewhat milder and
he would be very penitent on his knees at prayer
meetings. He held family prayers every morning while
we lived with him. When the train happened to pass
through his land and he was in the middle of prayers
he would cut them short so that he could see how
many were travelling and to count them. After they
had gone by he would return and as a rule say "They
all look down hearted" and then he would go
back on his knees to finish praying. He died in 1884,
87 years old.
At
school no one moved up until after the annual visit
of the "inspectors" in December. The whole
work for the year was in preparation for the "visitation",
the days of climax when everyone had to "give
account of his works and take the test"; days
of fear and terror. It was the fear of failing to
pass and having to bear the disgrace of remaining
in the same class for two years and the terror of
being examined by two men, who so far as we could
judge by what we heard from their mouths, were totally
English. There was need for neither almanac nor calendar
to tell us children that the great and dreadful day
of the "inspectors" was busy approaching.
There were plenty of signs and tests at hand to remind
us, because for weeks before the examination day
the cane would be at work, morning and noon, lesson
after lesson, from one end of the school to the other.
No one dared to think of taking a break to go out
to play mid-morning, on the contrary the set time
for the school was extended by keeping the children
there until five o'clock in the afternoon. Among
the children kept behind were those who had not had
a bite to eat since early morning, and if their clothes
were wet there was no provision to dry them apart
from body heat.
Mr
Watts and Mr Roberts were the two examiners at the
time I was at school. They would arrive at the school
by the ten o'clock train from Caernarfon. Since the
station was only the width of a field from the school
everyone knew they were approaching when the train
was heard moving on. The children would sit in their
'best clothes' as anxious and subdued as if they
were waiting for the judge to enter the court. To
please the 'judge' the children were ordered to rise
to their feet when the door opened and then to sit
and remain quiet as mice to observe the ceremony
of 'opening the handbags' and withdrawing the papers,
like breaking the seals of our destiny. Then the
work of examination would begin. I remember well
the fear of not being able to answer correctly, of
getting a sum wrong or of misreading a word. Then
there was the release and peaceful sleep of the night
when the two days of the 'Exam' had passed.
My
grandfather's brother, Gilbert Williams, continued
to live at Talybont, Rhostryfan until he died in
1966 at the age of 92. During visits to him when
I was a boy in the 1940s I used to wander around
the old station at Rhostryfan. It was falling into
dereliction but still largely intact and round the
station yard were many bits and pieces left behind
by the railway. There were one or two wagons still
parked in a siding. On one occasion I wandered down
the line to Dinas station and found the engine and
carriage sheds. They were open and I crept nervously
inside and gazed in wonderment at the sleeping locomotives,
climbed into the old carriages and tested out their
wooden seats. Even then I hoped that one day the
line might run again and that hope has not died!
By E Pennant Jones ~
Journal 126
Published by The Welsh Highland
Railway  Ltd
Gelert's Farm Works, Madoc Street West, Porthmadog, Gwynedd, LL49 9DY |
