Prototype: Moel Fferna Quarry...

Well the weather wasn't quite as pleasant as earlier this month when we did the walk up the Deeside Tramway to the Slab Quarry, but with fine dry cool weather forecast my partner and I headed up to Moel Fferna quarry with our miniature Dachshund...

Quite some walk, a good hour up from the A5, up the old access road, but worth it. I guess because of it's remote location a lot of the metal work in the buildings is still present, all the easy to remove stuff has gone, but still enough about to be interesting to have a good nose about.

The view is quite spectacular from the waste tips, you really are up in the Berwyn's here, a beautiful but relatively remote spine of hills in this part of the world... looking down the valley towards the village of Glyndyfrdwy. The walk up the road really does make you realise why the Deeside tramway was so important for the transport of cut slate down from the quarry, the road is steep and narrow, and in places very rough - yes it's 60 years since the quarry closed but it's the upper section, beyond the end of the public road, that's the roughest. The tramway on the walk home in contrast was well engineered, relatively level on the upper section down to the incline at the slab quarry, and a lot smoother for the cut slate, I'd imagine... despite the need then for double handling.

There isn't much trace of railway or tramway items about, and we didn't have long to explore, needing to get back for the kids from school, so we made it quick. However i did spot what looks to have been the chassis of an underground wagon, either a slab or waste wagon? Definitely 2ft gauge so internal quarry, rather than tramway.

Looking back from the tramway to the quarry, the waste tips just rise up out of the boggy moor, the tramway provides a relatively dry and clear path to follow, and shows how well engineered the original route was...

The last photo here shows the mid level of the incline at Moel Fferna itself, the subject of the photo in the Oakwood Press book 'The Industrial Tramways of the Vale of Llangollen', page 23. So a long and enjoyable stroll, the dog did very well indeed, having a wonderful time, and somewhere to head back to on a nice day with a tape measure for some details. Lots of inspiration, another post about that shortly. More soon...