The Welsh Highland Railway Project Website

The Welsh Highland Railway Project is a title that will be familiar to anyone with a passing interest in the railway. It was the name given to a website that was set up by the late Dr Ben Fisher with the intention of following the reconstruction of the Welsh Highland Railway. The website became the 'official' provider of news, information and announcements associated with the reconstruction. 

What this website did was to record every aspect of the day to day rebuilding of the railway to such an extent that it is now a significant historical record of that reconstruction. It also recorded the numerous events, galas and celebratory occasions of those reconstruction years.

Ben kept the website updated on a regular basis until his sudden, and untimely, death in August 2009. Following the sad loss of Ben, his family felt that this record should not be lost to the wider world. This was a likely scenario as the website was very kindly hosted courtesy of Bangor University where Ben worked. In order to ensure its survival it was offered to Cymdeithas Rheilffordd Eryri to be part of their (new) society website and where updating of reconstruction progress could continue.

The webmasters of the Cymdeithas Rheilffordd Eryri website are very honored to be the guardians of such a fine record and will do their best to update in Ben's style and using Ben's nomenclature where possible. Whether we can match Ben's eloquence is very much doubted. 

We would however, like to say that distance is not on our side. Ben was very fortunate in that he lived close to the railway and his work sufficiently flexible to allow him frequent forays into Welsh Highland territory to record all the events happening. This is amply recorded in Andy Keen's photo of him on the right. A typical pose of Ben and in his brother's words "so characteristic of Ben to be absorbed by a scene that might just look like men at work to someone who didn't know." 

He was also blessed with such a fan club who were more than enthusiastic in allowing their pictures to be displayed alongside his, indeed on occasions Ben was more than happy to use someone else's pictures if he felt his were not up to scratch.

On the other hand David and Laurence are both a number of hours away from the railway and are therefore going to have to rely on 'Ben's fan club' for pictures and news updates. We therefore will be more than happy to receive such in order to complete the record that Ben has started in such a fine way. We would like to point out, however, that whilst it is our prime endeavour to continue his work we will more than likely be providing weekly updates rather than the sometimes daily affairs Ben was able to do. That is unless there is some 'hot-of-the-press' information that warrants and instant update and in which case we'll do our best to keep up with Ben's prompt dissemination of that information.

We should also point out that we will be helped in the task of updating Ben's website by Bob Smith. As another long time supporter of the Welsh Highland, Bob will look after the updating of information with respect to Phase 4 construction work. Laurence and David will look after the updating of other aspects of Ben's website such as that to do with Locos, rolling stock and other peripheral activity.

The 26th May 2010 saw the commemoration of Ben with the opening of Nantmor Halt, a station dedicated to Ben's memory. The Halt was the subject of a fundraising appeal earlier in 2010 and this was very quick in raising necessary monies, once again showing everyone appreciation for what Ben had achieved.

David Tidy & Laurence Armstrong