All aboard Wales' Ffestiniog steam railway

[Tripatini]

‘If you steal a sheep, they’ll hang you, but if you steal a mountain, they’ll make you a Lord’ 

                                                                                                                          - old Welsh saying.

There’s evidence of this stealing of mountains all over Snowdonia National Park in northwest Wales. Where they haven’t carved the mountain out, and exported it all over the world, the slopes are littered with the stuff they didn’t want.

But,how did they carry away such large quantities, especially when a horse, or even a team of horses could only deal with a small amount?

If you lay down some sort of trackway, though, it reduces the friction considerably, so horses can manage a heavier load. That principle has been known about since mediaeval times; possibly even earlier than that. At Blaenau Ffestiniog,  in 1830 James Spooner surveyed such a trackway, right down to the port of Porthmadog - a route that was such that horses could be dispensed with on the downhill run. All that was necessary was a good push.

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