Rhiwbach Tramway

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Rhiwbach Tramway

Locale	Wales
Dates of operation	1861 – 1961
Track gauge	2 ft (610 mm)
Length	3 miles
Headquarters	Blaenau Ffestiniog

The head of the No. 3 incline of the Rhiwbach Tramway in 2007

The route of the Rhiwbach Tramway passing to the left and below the main Maenofferen mill level

The Rhiwbach Tramway was a British industrial narrow gauge railway connecting the remote slate quarries east of the Blaenau Ffestiniog with the Ffestiniog Railway.

The tramway was constructed to carry slate from the Rhiwbach quarry to the Ffestiniog Railway's Duffws Station. The quarry had no practical road access as it lay at an altitude of 1560 ft. above sea level in a remote moorland. The tramway rose by three inclines through Maenoffren quarry to reach the plateau, where it ran on an approximately level course east towards Cwt-y-Bugail quarry. From there the line turtned south to the head of the incline down to the Rhiwbach quarry which lay below the plateau in the Machno valley.

The tramway was originally designed to be worked by horses and gravity. Sometime in the 1920s petrol locomotives were introduced and a variety of them were used until the tramway closed in 1961. Most of the last track was lifted in 1964, although short sections remain intact as late as 2007.