BBC News Online: UK: Wales

Celebration of a great little train

The project at Tywyn in Gwynedd marks the 50th anniversary of the society that saved the Talyllyn steam railway.

For almost a century the narrow gauge Talyllyn railway hauled slate through the spectacular foothills of Snowdonia above Tywyn.

Passengers also used the service to reach remote villages high in the hills.

Slate from the Bryn Eglwys Quarry was used to roof the palace of Westminster and although the quarry closed in 1946.

But the train kept running and four years later the railway was saved by the world's first steam preservation society to become one of Wales's famous little trains.

Now a new forest walk to the abandoned quarry and a project to restore archaeological remains there tell the story of slate and the Talyllyn line, marking the 50th anniversary of the year the railway was saved.