In 1874, it was extended, rising up through a third incline to the Cwmorthin Lake level and continuing along the valley floor to reach the Conglog Quarry.
[5] A Board of Trade inspector visiting the site in 1864 objected to the arrangement, because there were no trap points to protect the main line, and ruled that distant signals must be fitted by the Ffestiniog Railway, that there should be a telegraph installed between the station and the drumhouse at the top of the incline, and that no trains should use the main line while the incline was in operation.
It was generally known as the Village incline, and a stone bridge carried the minor road to the hamlet of Dolrhedyn over the lower section.
The track continued through cuttings and on embankments until the marshalling loop at the foot of the Tai Muriau incline was reached.
[14] An agreement was reached in 1868, which would allow Conglog to lay rails down the valley, to connect to the existing Cwmorthin Tramway.
All goods using the tramway would be subject to a toll of 6 pence (2.5p) per ton, with an additional amount payable to the Cwmorthin drivers, who operated the inclines.
[18] The left hand branch was built with surplus materials from the Ffestiniog Railway,[19] and reached the Conglog mill by a reversing siding.
[20] There is no further evidence for the takeover, but presumably it took place, since the incline was listed in a sale document dating from 1900 for Cwmorthin, when the Conglog Quarry was still operating.
In order to reduce the number of trips across the mountain to operate the tramway, they tried to insist that Conglog must run trains of 10 wagons or more, but this was not easy to achieve, and eventually a compromise was reached, whereby Cadwaladr Roberts, one of the consortium of men working the Conglog Quarry, could operate the inclines himself, at his own risk.
[19] The Oakeley Quarry records show that the tramway was refurbished in 1936/37,[19] but at the onset of the Second World War in 1939, Cwmorthin was mothballed, and traffic on the lower section ceased.