The Ffestiniog Railway Society is able to support the Ffestiniog Railway through the generous donations, legacies and contributions made by members and supporters. Financial contributions large and small allow the railway to make improvements to the passenger experience, rebuild heritage items and achieve large projects not possible with revenue alone.
More detail to come soon….
The Boston Lodge Interpretation and Development Project fundraising appeal to support the National Heritage Lottery Fund award of funding to help ensure the conservation of the fabric of Boston Lodge.
Boston Lodge Appeal »
In July 1962 Hunslet Linda arrived from the Penrhyn Quarry Railway to fill a gap in the Ffestiniog Railway’s locomotive fleet. At the time, she was a rather youthful sixty nine years old and was initially rented for £50 per week before being purchased a year later.
In her time on the Ffestiniog Railway, Linda has seen many changes but the Hunslet pedigree and quality of build shines through. She returned to service in April 2011 after a prolonged overhaul that saw certain features restored, such as the original safety valves. After a couple of years as an oil burner, Linda returned to coal firing and has been a regular performer, and certainly catching attention when running with sister Blanche in matching FR green liveries. Now, ten years later, as she approaches sixty years on the Ffestiniog Railway, a further major overhaul is about to take place. As of September 2021, the appeal has raised a fantastic £90,000 – the boiler has been retubed and focus is now turning to the chassis.
The Mountaineer appeal has been launched to restore the loco to traffic. With regular subscriptions and other donations, close to £60,000 has already been raised.
As well as the appeal, Mountaineer merchandise is available from the Mountaineer shop.
Details on the appeal page »
As part of the construction of a new double fairlie to replace Earl of Merioneth, the Society has taken up the challenge of funding the new boiler so that the Company can get the job done as soon as possible. We have made a good start and have allocated funds from recent legacies to good effect. Additionally, individual components can be sponsored to keep Earl of Merioneth complete.
New Double Fairlie Appeal »May be made via Charities Aid Foundation in the link below. This allows debit/credit cards to be used and additionally allows Gift Aid.
By online banking transfer:
Payee / Account Name: Ffestiniog Railway Society
Account Number: 28374614
Sort Code: 60-05-11
If your banking allows please add text that identifies the fund
HM Revenue and Customs’s Gift Aid scheme allows the Ffestiniog Railway Society, as a registered charity, to reclaim the tax on all donations made to them provided:
Download the Gift Aid form here▼
Your Gift Aid declaration is valid until you inform the Society you do not pay tax and may be used to reclaim Gift Aid on all gifts and subscriptions made, and may be even be used to claim tax on donations made up to six years before the date of the declaration. The Society presently has around 2,700 valid Gift Aid declarations which brings in additional income of around £25,000 per annum.
Sign up and use Everyclick’s search function to raise money for the Ffestiniog Railway Society.
It costs the Society nothing to run and the more people that sign up, the more money is raised.
Support Ffestiniog Railway Society here »Here’s some projects we’ve supported.
Specific fundraising for the project to complete this ‘unfinished business’ of restoring large England Welsh Pony to steam after nearly 80 years. With the project launched in 2013 in tribute to long time General Manager Allan Garraway. Over £260,000 was raised by members and supporters with a first steaming in June 2020
The Society funded new sets of points on the fan into the main yard at Boston Lodge as part of the improvements, costing £50,000
Using a legacy from long-time S&T volunteer Cyril Barnett and additional general funds to a total of £280,000, the construction and fitting out of a fully equipped workshop for use by the outdoor engineering department. The largest project we have funded to date
A major fundraising initiative over five years to provide 1992-built double fairlie David Lloyd George with new piston-valve power bogies, at a cost of £200,000. This is only possible due to the fundraising by members and general donations received
The call went out to members to support the installation of heritage signalling features as part of the rebuilding of Porthmadog Harbour Station. The response was magnificent with £68,000 being raised to support the installation of semaphore signalling and the associated features
Over the winter of 2014-15, one of the major projects was the replacement of the bottom end pointwork and point motors, along with trackwork. This expensive project was aided by a grant of £57,000 from the Society
Lilla returned to traffic in 2008 with a brand new (Boston Lodge-built) boiler, thanks to the sterling efforts of the Lilla Group raising £42,286 through the FR Society. Another £22,000 was raised to fund a chassis overhaul in 2015