Geograph - photograph every grid square

The Bala Lake Railway (Welsh name: Rheilffordd Llyn Tegid) is a narrow gauge steam railway running for 4½ miles along the shore of Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid), the largest natural lake in Wales.

The railway is a tourist attraction, which opened in 1972. It uses the trackbed of the former railway line from Ruabon through Bala and Dolgellau to Barmouth. That line closed in 1965, during the "Beeching Cuts" (see Link ).

The current terminus in Bala (in 2023) is a little way out of the town centre. The Bala Lake Railway has ambitious plans to build an extension into the town.

More information about the Bala Lake Railway can be found on its website: Link

Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri (Eryri National Park) (was formerly known in English as 'Snowdonia' National Park) lies within two counties of Wales (Gwynedd and Conwy) and was created in 1951. Link

Dr Richard Beeching (1913-1985) was employed during the 1960s by the government as the Chairman of the British Railways Board. In 1963 he produced a report which recommended the closure of thousands of miles of railway lines and thousands of stations, which were deemed to be unprofitable, to streamline the British railway network.

Over the years that followed, many of the lines and stations recommended for closure did indeed close, although some did survive against the odds while a few which did close have since been rebuilt and reopened. The railway closures of that period are often referred to as "Beeching Cuts".

More information about Dr Beeching's report cn be found on the websites of Network Rail Link and the National Archives Link