June 2019 Update

June was a good month for the railway and passenger numbers are described as healthy, although the strange assortment of weather patterns was hardly conducive to record-breaking numbers. Nevertheless, there were consistent flows of visitors and the mid-month Gala, again in spite of the weather, was well attended. The Gala…

May 2019 Update

The BLR has done it again. During May, Tripadvisor awarded us another Certificate of Excellence thus elevating us to their Hall of Fame for the second time in a row. Their statement read as follows; “Because you have earned a Certificate of Excellence every year for the past five years,…

April 2019 Update

As Easters go, 2019 was as good as it gets. Normally occurring earlier in the year and often prone to cold and rainy conditions, the weather could hardly have been better and the BLR carried over double the number of passengers this year over last. Perfect weather throughout was an…

Heritage Centre Opening

The Official Opening and Launch of the new Heritage Centre at Llanuwchllyn Station will take place at 11:00am on Monday 15th April. The Heritage Centre celebrates the rich and diverse history of the slate industry in North Wales and showcases our role in preserving and caring for a small part of…

March 2019 Update

The advent of spring at the railway coincided with a wonderful arrival in March, namely another five-figure donation for the Red Dragon Project from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous. To say that all involved in the Bala Extension, as well as the BLR, are over the moon and…

February 2019 Update

It has been a busy month (was it ever thus) but we start with a major announcement from the BLR Trust about a large grant for the Red Dragon Project. The Trust is delighted to announce that its flagship Red Dragon Project, which is working towards extending the Bala Lake…

January 2019 Update

January has been a decidedly busy month (witness one of our biggest news pages to date) with much activity on the boiler front plus fevered progress on track relaying and maintenance. The Wednesday Gang and the Working Weekend/Week, which started on the 19th, produced a remarkable amount of work carried…

December 2018 Update

To the unsuspecting, December might be thought to be a very quiet month, but as always on the BLR, a vast amount of activity takes place in the ‘closed season’, so here is a sample of what has been happening behind the scenes. Boilers are in the news again, with…

November 2018 Update

Bearing in mind the BLR has only three full-time staff, we are indebted to our loyal band of volunteers who achieve so much and in all weathers, as you will read. Throughout all this, the humour persists, as does the large amount of tea and flapjacks consumed. What follows is…