The Padarn Railway was built 1841-3 to transport slate from the Dinorwic Quarries to Port Dinorwic (Y Felinheli). Built to the unusual gauge of 4 feet (1.22 metres), the railway used transporter wagons to carry 2-foot-gauge (actually 1 ft 10 in (578 mm)) quarry trucks. The railway closed in 1961. In 1971, a 1 ft 11 in (597 mm)-gauge tourist railway, the Llanberis Lake Railway, was opened on the trackbed of the Padarn Railway along the shore of Llyn Padarn between Gilfach Ddu and Cei Llydan; the line was extended northwest to Penllyn in 1972 and southwest to Llanberis Village in 2003.

B.A.Malaws, RCAHMW, 21 September 2011.

2.

Two separate alignments of the overland railway systems which carried slate from Dinorwic to the sea at Port Dinorwic/y Felinheli. The Dinorwic quarry railroad was opened in 1825, and made use of cast-iron edge rails, horse-traction and inclined planes. It was superseded by the Dinorwic Quarry Railway along the shores of Padarn lake, completed in 1842, which reflected the standard ‘Stephensonian’ railway engineering of its period, built with advice from the Spooner family associated with the Festiniog Railway, and of individuals associated with Robert Stephenson. It now provides the alignment for the Llanberis Lake Railway, a tourist attraction dating from the 1970s using historic quarry locomotives. 

Statement of Significance:

The railways serving the relict Dinorwic Slate Quarry (NPRN 40538) enabled it to export finished slate to the sea more expeditiously than the previous road systems. The railroad of 1825 followed the earlier Penrhyn Quarry Railroad (NPRN 409887) in terms of technology and alignment; its social linkage with the village of Clwt y Bont (NPRN 409887), which grew up alongside it, is evident. It contrasts with the more substantial engineering of the 1842 railway, built with advice from members of Robert Stephenson’s circle of engineers. The functional linkages between these railways and the quarry are clearly evident. The operational Llanberis Lake Railway enables visitors to appreciate the role and function of this earlier railway running along the same formation.

Sources:

• Louise Barker & Dr David Gwyn, March 2017. Gwynedd Slate Industry Transport Routes. (Unpublished Report: Project GC401 for Gwynedd Archaeological Trust) 
• Tirwedd Llechi Gogledd Orllewin Cymru / The Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales. Nomination as a World heritage Site (Nomination Document, January 2020) 
• Wales Slate World Heritage Site https://www.llechi.cymru/  

Hannah Genders Boyd, RCAHMW, January 2022