Cowlyd Tramway

[1][page needed] Llyn Cowlyd had been a reservoir since 1908, owned by the Conwy and Colwyn Bay Joint Water Supply Board.

The dam was completed in December 1921, being built entirely from rock quarried from the adjacent mountainside, and was opened the following year in more favourable weather.

[1][page needed] From the top of the Dolgarrog inclines, near Coedty (where it branched from the Eigiau Tramway), the line ran for some 4 miles largely parallel to, and to the north of Afon Ddu.

A tramway, built in 1853, and the earliest in the area, ran for a little over half a mile before descending an incline to the walled mine yard beside Pont Dolgarrog and the former Royal Oak Inn, now called the "Lord Newborough" after the landowner.

[1][page needed] Two steam engines were used on the line during construction of the dam – the German built loco Eigiau (Orenstein & Koppel, No.

The Bagnall was removed by its owners, the contractors Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons and used on the construction of the Welsh Highland Railway.

on loan from Innogy – owners of Dolgarrog Power station, and in whose colours it is painted – and was used by the revived Welsh Highland Railway in the reconstruction of the narrow gauge line from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and it remains there.

This loan to the WHR is not without precedent – back in 1922/3 the original Welsh Highland construction contractors also made use of a steam locomotive which had previously been used here, namely the Bagnall.

Where the metalled Trefriw access road ends at the gate, at Siglen, the route of the line between here and the dam runs higher up than the current dam access track, meaning that much of the formation has largely been untouched, and therefore much can be seen in the way of trackbed remains, including sleepers and rail.