On Saturday 7 June 2025 – the Saturday of the MiniBash – volunteers of the Ffestiniog Railway Society celebrated being awarded a National Railway Heritage Awards plaque for the external refurbishment of Penrhyn Station.
To mark the plaque’s unveiling, the group behind the project invited all the volunteers who had worked on the project, together with a personal guest, plus representatives from Ffestiniog Railway Co, the Society (to whom the Award was formally made as they submitted the project for consideration) and representatives from NRHA (Andy Savage, Gavin Johns and Robert Hayward), Network Rail (Gwynfor Rees) and the local County Councillor (Meryl Roberts).
The party met at Penrhyn around 10am and at around 10.30am Alan Norton started formal proceedings by giving a welcome and introducing Andy Savage (the NRHA’s chairman), Gwynfor Rees and Meryl Roberts, who all gave a brief speech. And then two of our long serving volunteers, Tim and Sue Sharp, unveiled the plaques, positioned either side of the entrance door into the hostel.
After that, the group caught the Up ‘Mountain Spirit’ and got off at Tan-y-Bwlch for a buffet lunch. Afterwards, the party returned on either the Down ‘Woodland Wanderer’ or ‘Mountain Spirit’.
The unveiled plaques at Penrhyn with, from left, Gwynfor Rees (Network Rail), Sue Sharp, Tim Sharp and Andy Savage, Chairman of the National Railway Heritage Awards. Courtesy Luke Griffin Photography
The restored exterior of the Ffestiniog Railway station at Penrhyn. The two-year project, completed in 2024, including significant work to replace woodwork; this included the bargeboards, window frames and platform canopy. The project, completed to the railway’s usual high standards, was to see the Ffestiniog Railway Society awarded the Network Rail Volunteers Award at the 2024 National Railway Heritage Awards when these were announced at a ceremony in December 2024.