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From this month's featured article Norman Gurley was a stalwart of both the Ffestiniog Railway and Society for many years. He worked for the FR as a volunteer from 1955 and was often joined by his sister Hazel. He was also involved with the society as a director and worked on the magazine. He joined the full time staff in 1963 in the permanent way department. He later worked in the booking office and for Ffestiniog Travel. Norman retired in 1997 but continued to live near the railway. He died in 2004. He was born in 1932, brought up in Watford and by the mid-1950s he was working as a progress-chaser at the Scammell lorry works in that town. As a child he was interested in aircraft. It was while watching aircraft near Watford tunnel that he saw two "Princess Royal" class locomotives emerging from the tunnel with a wartime express of 20+ coaches. He was deflected to an interest in railways and had seen much of what there was to see on British railways by the time he reached Boston Lodge in 1954 (when according to the rumour the FR was about to be reopened to help the Electricity Board build a power station!). (more...) Recently featured: Princess Harbour Station Alan Pegler Purpose Festipedia is dedicated to recording the history of the Festiniog Railway from the 19th Century to the present day. There is a user friendly index to help you find your way around the main categories. You will also find much detail on the Welsh Highland Railway

Contributing to Festipedia A wiki is a collaboratively edited website. All users can edit any page. You have complete freedom to add to, edit or delete the work of previous authors. It is easy to create new pages, link to wiki pages and format the text on pages. There is a full help system so that you can find out how to do things. You will find it similar to Wikipedia. There is a recent changes page listing all pages that have changed recently. There is also a discussion page where contributors can discuss possible changes to Festipedia, as well as a discussion page for each article. First time visitors If this is your first visit to Festipedia you may find it useful to log in first. That will allow you to set up your username and decide how certain features should work. All contributors to Festipedia are encouraged to log in. If you know little or nothing about the Festiniog Railway then History of the FR is a good place to start. You can also choose from the list in the banner at the head of this page. Returning visitors If you have visited Festipedia before, you may want to visit the community portal for the latest news including information on updates to the wiki software.

This month's featured picture Caernarfon is the the northern terminus of the modern Welsh Highland Railway. It is a distance of approx 39.44km (24.5 miles) from Porthmadog. The original Welsh Highland Railway never ran to Caernarfon, the present narrow gauge station opened in 1997 with the first phase of the modern WHR. A new station building was largely complete in August 2018. It was open for the first time during 2018's Super Power weekend when it hosted an exhibition of railway paintings. Fitting out started soon after and the building was in use as a shop and ticket office for Santa services and over the Christmas week. After the end of the Christmas services the fitting out recommenced allowing final completion in time for the main 2019 season. The headshunt was lifted again and moved to its final location which will allow the runround loop to be lengthened a little further and provide space for two Garratts to run around simultaneously. The new station was officially opened by Sir Peter Luff, Chair of the National Heritage Lottery Fund on June 14th 2019, along with the new building at Waunfawr. Photo credit: Roger Dimmick. Recently featured: McKenzie & Holland Moelwyn Tunnel Beddglert Signals Rules for Contributions The rules for contributions are simple: Do not post copyright material unless you have permission from the copyright owner Do not post personal details of living individuals (address, telephone number, email address, etc.) unless you have their permission to do so Keep on topic - you can put anything you want on your user pages but articles should be about the Ffestiniog Railway or related subjects Be courteous Do not delete anything unless it needs to be deleted Where possible please record the sources of your information Please record a comment on the change you have made in the box at the bottom of the page No obscene language Abusive or libellous postings are banned If you want to notify us of a possible copyright infringement, please use the Contact Us option in the box in the top left of the page. We have voluntary editors that look after Festipedia. They can be contacted via email or by using their User pages. Response may not be immediate, but they will reply, as long as you leave a contact point!!