In the last eighteen months, the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways (FfWHR) has spent over £3 Million with local contractors to help create its Interpretation and Boston Lodge Project.

The project will tell stories about the railways and preserve their past. It is being funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Ffestiniog Railway Society, and the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway Trust.

Twenty contractors and sub-contractors from Gwynedd and North Wales are involved in its creation, using local skills and craftsmanship that provides significant benefits to local businesses.

The main contractor is OBR from Llangefni, which is leading the work on 12 of the buildings, whilst GH James Cyf groundworks of Trawsfynydd and J Lloyd Steelwork of Corwen have been working on the small loco shed.

Working alongside OBR are its subcontractors including Snowdonia Lime of Glan Conwy, JRS Mechanical and Electrical Service from Abergele, Lance Williams Roofing of Porthaethwy, North Wales liquid screed of Caernarfon, Colin Jones Rock Engineering of Porthmadog and R G Jones of Pwllheli.

Besides the building works, the project is providing a wide range of work experience and skills, development activities, and a new interpretation of the railway.

In particular, it provides the opportunity for young people to learn practical skills related to the railway’s operations, including its infrastructure, works, marketing, interpretation and administration.

Among the work being carried out is:

• Completing the restoration and adding an extension to the Blacksmiths shop.
• Repairing the Iron and Brass Foundries.
• Demolishing the old Den and creating a new store
• Repairing and extending the electrician’s workshop and oil store to provide improved mess facilities, toilets and electrician’s workshop.
• Rebuilding the Wagon Repair Shed in the Top Yard.
• Creating an interpretation area at the end of the Old Engine Shed.
• Restoring the old oil store to provide visitor toilets and a new server room
• Restoring 1&2 Boston Lodge to create new residential space and offices
• Building a new small loco shed.

Tours of Boston Lodge are expected to start later this year, but in the meantime the railways have additional attractions for visitors, including a model railway workshop and real ale festival.

They have also launched an app that can be downloaded to visitors’ phones as a personalised guide for their journey along the line.

It has been really important to reinvest this money back into the community here as we restored old buildings and built new ones, transforming the site to make it fit for the future and enable us to offer guided tours to showcase the heritage skills that keep the railway running.

We have a wealth of construction skills locally and I was determined to use them.

Dr Edwina Bell, Heritage Project Manager at FfWHR

The Interpretation and Boston Lodge Project is all about working in partnership with the local community.

I am immensely proud of the work that has taken place with the help of the NLHF and match funding by the Ffestiniog Railway society and the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways Trust to make our busy Boston Lodge works a place where the community and visitors can step into a real working site and understand the area’s pioneering spirit and give locals with a Railway family history an opportunity to see where their ancestors worked.

We now have a state of the art classroom and facilities to enable us to do that.

When you visit you will see the project has allowed us to rescue historic buildings at Boston Lodge, bringing them back into use, as well as creating some new buildings, thanks to the skills and endeavour of our contractors.

I can’t wait to invite the community onto the site this year.

Paul Lewin, FfWHR General Manager

It has been an absolute pleasure to see young faces light up during a work experience week. We get them working on real projects, and you can see the pride spread across their faces as they realise they have learned a new skill and constructed a small piece of Boston Lodge.

Dr Edwina Bell, Heritage Project Manager at FfWHR