Would you like your own copy?

This was originally a photograph album of the Festiniog Railway put together by the Spooner family in the 1880s. There may have been more than one copy but an original is now in the Gwynedd Archives.

It was a wish of the late Michael Seymour (former FR Archivist) that the contents of the Spooner Album be made available, in large format, for the benefit of all and he left a legacy for this purpose. His wish has come true with the publication of a new, revised, edition. Not only does this contain high quality reproductions of all the original album photographs accompanied by informative captions but, in addition, extra contemporary material has been sought out to provide a perfect accompaniment. The highest of production standards have been applied to the new volume of which there was only one printing.

Besides the forty plus large format reproductions (in sepia) of the original album photographs taken by R H Bleasdale during August 1887, four or five of his photos which are not in the album have been included, plus at least one not even included in his own list! In addition...

A commentary on the Festiniog Railway at the time of the Album and its earlier history with material taken from Spooner’s own book and the FR Archives...

For the first time, in full, the complete text and illustrations from Over the Narrowest Gauge. A lively contemporary account of the line and a trip over it...

Detailed captions for the photographs themselves have been compiled by FR Archivist Adrian Gray, using extensive notes left by his predecessor, Michael Seymour. More historic images, carefully selected from the FR Archives, have been added to further inform and delight on every aspect of the railway...

The Album photographs themselves have been laser scanned for absolute fidelity and are printed in sepia tones as illustrated below. To further complement the deluxe presentation, the whole volume has been set on a background reproduction of contemporary aged paper and is supplied in a protective slip case enabling easy storage on a bookshelf...

The book is in A4 landscape format printed on heavyweight (170gsm) art paper. 120 pages, casebound with glazed paper jacket. Supplied complete with matching portrait slip case, title embossed on the spine, for protection and easy storage on the bookshelf.

A proportion of the profits from this book will go towards further Heritage Group projects.

If you would like to order a copy, please visit the Festiniog Railway's online shop or click on the link to download the order form.

The order form is in PDF format.  You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader so that you can read the form.

Download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader for your computer.