Page "Ffestiniog Railway" Paragraph 17

In 1921, the Aluminium Corporation at Dolgarrog in the Conwy Valley bought for £ 40, 000 (£ as of ), a controlling interest in the FR and Henry Jack became Chairman, the FR company's financial administration moving to Dolgarrog.

Jack was also chairman of the new Welsh Highland Railway and was instrumental in getting government backing for its completion on the understanding that the FR and the WHR would be jointly managed from Porthmadog, with maintenance undertaken at Boston Lodge and with other economies of scale.

In 1923, the FR line was joined to the WHR line at a station called " Portmadoc New ".

The Welsh Highland line was almost totally dependent on tourism which proved slow to develop, because firstly, of two slumps in the early 1920s and early 1930s ; secondly, the rise of road traffic including ' charabancs '; thirdly the unreliability of the railway with its ( even then ) ancient carriages and increasingly decrepit locomotives.