Today, 24th July 2024, the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways invited members of the RailAdvent team to make a visit to North Wales for a taster of their new Boston Lodge tours.

The new tours run morning and afternoon on Monday, Wednesdays, Fridays and on Sunday mornings.

Previously off limits to the general public, these new tours of Boston Lodge give you the chance to go behind the scenes of the different sheds and see how the old and new fit together today.

Around 10 years ago, the team at the railway decided that with the Welsh Highland Railway arriving in Porthmadog, the facilities at Boston Lodge were no longer fit for purpose with the addition of Garratt locomotives and WHR carriages needing servicing.

The railway looked for new land to build a purpose built site for servicing locomotives and carriages, but in a 3 mile radius, no suitable area was found, so the decision was made to redevelop the Boston Lodge site.

A number of buildings have been replaced, but many have been replaced with like-for-like buildings.
One such new building is the carriage shed, which now means the carriage fleet is now undercover.

There is also a little engines shed for the smaller locos, such as Britomart and Velinheli (you can climb onboard these locos which is great for the children).

You also get to look into the running shed, our visit showed Taliesin, Linda and James Spooner residing in the sheds.

The tour also takes in the original engine shed, and locomotives in the shed at the time of our visit were Earl of Merioneth and Princess.

Funding for the tours and the Boston Lodge project totalled £5.2m, £3.766m of which came from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and £0.568m came from the Ffestiniog Railway Society.

From an environmental side, the Ffestiniog Railway has had the new carriage shed roofs covered in solar panels.

Additionally, the railway has worked with nature on the extension and has installed two barriers to keep the sea away from the new buildings.

The sea remains unaffected by this upgrade, especially since they have a system in place to help prevent nutrient pollution.

Rain water from the roof goes into the sea, whereas ground water from the works area goes into a specific drain, preventing any groundwater pollution from entering the water from Boston Lodge.

Wagon space has been created to allow volunteers to work on the various heritage goods wagons.

Included in the tour ticket price is a shuttle service to Boston Lodge from Porthmadog Harbour Station.

Our locomotive for today was Lilla, but the FFWHR says that the tours will have a mixture of steam and diesel traction.

Our guide for the tour was Stuart, and was just one of the guides that has had special training to make sure that the tours are informative, and you get the best out of your trip.

We thoroughly enjoyed our guided tour and if you are in the area and looking for something different to do, then make sure you add the Boston Lodge Tour on to your list of things to do in North Wales.

Tours cost £27 each for adults and take around 2hrs 15 minutes. You can find out more information about the tours on the Ffestiniog Railway website by clicking here

A big thank you to the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways for a superb day and for inviting us along.

Before or after your tour, why not pop into Spooner’s based on the station at Porthmadog?

A wide variety of meals snacks and refreshments are available.

A chicken burger followed by chocolate cake was just the ticket whilst the rain came down here in North Wales

You can explore the Spooner’s Menu here