Fascinating Facts

Did you know our first train in 1980 was operated entirely by women? but not everyone was entirely happy at the idea?
Find out the facts that really matter about our railway?

Our tea room serves around 16,500 cups of tea in one season, making it the most popular drink by far. The train crews also get free tea while they are working, which might explain why we only served 4,480 cups of coffee last year.

Our shop is known around the railway enthusiast world for its wide selection of railway books, and has over 1,500 titles in stock at any one time. A rough calculation suggests that if we laid every book in the shop end to end, they would stretch three times the length of the railway.


You might think it is every little boy's dream to be a train driver, but not necessarily one shared by all our volunteers. In 2009, just 44 members operated the trains just over 4% of the membership.

In an average day, the guard on the train will walk between seven and nine miles, which is almost as far as the locomotive and the carriages travel during their day in service. Most of the walking is around the shed, but there is plenty of miles to be done while walking to the signal box to change the points.

Our youngest steam locomotive driver is Mark Seale, at 26. He?s been coming to the railway since not long after he was born, so he's had plenty of years to learn the trade. He often operates trains with his dad, who is also a steam driver, and occasionally with his brother, who's a qualified guard.

The most common name among our volunteers is Andy. On one occasion recently, we managed to have seven of them on site at once. The name Dave isn't far behind in the popularity stakes, though the Daves are less co-ordinated, and have only managed five at a go.

Staff claims to fame 1: Lyn Seale, the shop manager was approached by a West End producer offering her a job in the theatre she turned it down preferring to get married instead.

Staff claims to fame 2: one of our volunteers recently worked as a male dinnerlady. He was obviously ahead of his time, as his cooking is better than most school canteens, beating Jamie Oliver by some years!

During August - our busiest month - we get through around 35 loo rolls a month in the toilets at Porthmadog station. Allowing for 10 sheets per person, and 380 sheets per roll, this works out at around 1,330 sittings during the month.

Our fleet of small diesel shunters includes three 60 horse power Simplex locomotives. These are known as pigs for reasons that can't be repeated here. They do have names, but are more often called by their colours the red pig, the orange pig and the green pig. To add to the confusion, the red pig is in fact yellow!