The Railways, Slate Quarries and Tramways of Blaenau Ffestiniog

Written by two authors with extensive knowledge of slate quarries and the Blaenau Ffestiniog area, this book surveys the network of railways and tramways that were built to extract the slate and then to transport it onwards to its markets, where it 'roofed the world' Slate created Blaenau Ffestiniog, turning it into one of the most important towns in North Wales and though the industry has largely gone, its legacy lives on, not only in the slate tips that dominate the skyline but also in the surviving railways that add to the town's prosperity today. The book goes beyond the geographical confines of Blaenau Ffestiniog, allowing the authors to devote separate sections to each of the major quarries that had a significant tramway system. The tramways, and what remained of them in later years, together with the three major railways that slate attracted to the town are fully illustrated, with pictures that for the most part previously unpublished.