Minffordd Yard
From Festipedia, hosted by the FR Heritage Group
Minffordd Yard is located to the north of the FR main line just west of Minffordd station. The very extensive slate wharves and exchange sidings with the Cambrian Railways were established in 1872. There is some confusion over dates here. Having originally leased the land from the Huddart Family estate the FR Co. bought the land for £2500 in mid 1876.
Slate storage sheds were built at the FR main line end of the yard, adjacent to the Maeofferen wharf and continued in use, leased to Davies Bros., slate merchants, until the 1960s. They are now fully used for railway purposes.
The only rail access is via the bottom end of the Down line at Minffordd, originally the Mineral line. Trains leave the present loop and join a line which runs parallel to the FR main line, passing over the road access to the yard and in front of the former weigh house before reaching a set of weighted points that are normally set for the small fan of post-preservation sidings that comprise the Upper Yard. In order to gain access to the steep, sharply curved, line into the lower (main) yard the weighted points must be held over by the guard or second man of the train. Trains 'rushing the bank' in order to leave the yard simply trail through the weighted points so that their progress up the bank is not hindered.
The weighted points have considerable heritage significance as there has been a set on this location ever since the yard was established and they have been operated by the same method throughout that time! The only other set of points having a similar pedigree is at Boston Lodge, though their operating lever has been changed over time.
The steepness and curvature of the line down into the main yard places limits on the locomotives and stock that can use it; double engines are forbidden, as are some of the older bogie carriages.
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[edit]Layout
Near the foot of the slope the yard line divides. The left hand fork divides again almost immediately with one line serving the former Goods Shed, now in use as a workshop and shed for their loco, Harlech Castle, by the Permanent Way department, and the other passing behind the shed to the sunken road known as the Coal Hole. Here there is a loop with chutes for coal and ballast above the left hand line. Originally provided for coal delivered by standard gauge wagons and used as such into the 1960s, when the standard gauge side of the yard was closed, they are now mostly used for deliveries of ballast by road. In the early preservation period the FR bought used ballast from BR and this, too, was delivered by rail to the chutes. As the FR moved to buying new ballast, delivered by lorries, so the use of the chutes was adapted.
The right hand fork from the access line used to lead to a series of wharves, leased to the various quarry companies and some merchants, from which slate was transferred to SG wagons for onward transport. Charles Easton Spooner took great care to arrange the various transfer sidings so that loads were mostly moved on the level or downhill. The construction of Minffordd yard and the negotiation of favourable rates for slate traffic over the FR and Cambrian Railways did much to reduce the impact upon the FR of the arrival of the LNWR and GWR in Blaenau Ffestiniog.
The present right hand fork runs past the former Goods shed to a post-preservation set of three loops used for shunting and marshalling Permanent Way & Works trains. At the Porthmadog end of these loops is an overhead gantry crane provided for the transfer of heavy objects and machinery from road to rail transport. Its use has declined significantly since raod access was provided into Boston Lodge Works.
A fourth siding, parallel to the loops, serves the bulk tanks into which fuel oil for the steam locos is delivered. A recent development, in the vicinity of the gantry, is a ground level bunker for coal, built as the FR converts back to the traditional fuel in the face of rising oil prices. Coal wagons are loaded using an industrial shovel.
A continuation of the left hand loop line forms a long siding on the edge of the former Maenofferen slate wharf and a head shunt from the other two loops leads to the Maenofferen Shed, via a four-way traverser and the three-way point formerly at Harbour Station. The larger Maenofferen Shed is used for winter storage of rolling stock, usually smaller vehicles, and is reached via a 'point' comprising a pair of rails held to gauge by tie rods and able to be slewed to connect to each of the four lines leading into the shed. It is a giant, crude, stub point and requires the rail to be positively aligned at the loose end by short fishplates. Slewing the rails requires a large crowbar and is a back-breaking task for one man!
The Maenofferen Bach shed is reached via a 3-way stub point, previously used at Harbour Station. The lever for this point can be seen in the photos below; it has a very worn latch for each alignment.
 The 4-way stub point looking towards Maenofferen shed. |
 The 4-way stub point looking away from Maenofferen shed. |
 The 3-way stub points looking towards Maenofferen Bach shed. |
 The 3-way stub points looking away from Maenofferen Bach shed. Note the minature railway to the left of the picture. |
[edit]Dingley Dell
A trailing connection from the right hand fork of the yard entry road crosses back over the left hand fork by a diamond crossing, the nearer of the two in the 1887 photo shown, to a siding roughly aligned with, but largely laid over, an earlier line along the edge of the Votty wharf. The sunken standard gauge tracks in this area have been filled in and the siding serves the Permanent Way department's rail stacks and, since the early 2000s, an area of the yard given over to the S&T department. A pair of sidings protected by a polytunnel houses their works train. The sylvan nature of this end of the yard has led to its nickname, Dingley Dell.
[edit]Images
 Prince shunting on the wharves in 1913. Prince is fitted with Welsh Pony's smokebox at this time. |
 Unloading coal from BR to FR waggons in 1961. |
 Unloading coal from BR to FR waggons in 1961. |
 Unloading coal from BR to FR waggons in 1961. |
 BR Standard 4MT Class 4-6-0 No. 75004 collects three empty coal wagons from the exchange sidings with the Ffestiniog Railway at Minffordd in 1965. |
 Linda reversing through Minffordd Yard into the "Coal Hole" in May 1966 to pick up some coal wagons from the exchange sidings with BR. |
 The exchange sidings in May 1970. |
 The rear of the yard as seen from the bridge over the Network Rail line. |
 In 2006 a new coal dock was constructed in the yard. |