FROM THE RM AUGUST1900
“THE miniature line that runs between Portmadoc [as it was then spelled] and the Festiniog [sic] slate district of North Wales, though it has long since lost its exclusive prominence as an example, and is no longer the Mecca it was, still enjoys the distinction of being one the narrowest of narrow gauges. “The mere fact of its being the first parent, as it were, of some thousands of miles of narrow gauges in other parts of the world, adds to its interest in the eyes of the visitor, who may promise himself much entertainment in seeing what this first parent is actually like.
“Rather less than 14 miles in length, nominally 2ft wide but really 1ft 11½in, the Festiniog Railway was the war cry – and the basis, in fact, of the second of the violent modern controversies known as the ‘battle of the gauges’.
“This was begun by the favourable report of a Government inspector on the opening of the Festiniog Railway to passengers in 1865, and accelerated by other reports in respect of the working on the track of a peculiarly-constructed engine, the ‘Fairlie’, demanded by its increasing business in 1869.”