Dandy waggon

The challenge on the FR was to move slate from an elevated location to a harbour for shipping, in this case from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog, Wales.

George Stephenson is credited for having proposed a solution: build special cars for the horses to ride in on the way down for use on the Stockton and Darlington Railway that opened in 1825.

Stephenson introduced the dandy wagon in 1828, which was simply a four-wheeled cart supplied with hay, attached to the rear of a four-chaldron train in which the horse could rest on the downhill sections.

According to the Traveller's Guide (Blue Cover)[7] Wagon number 50, a 4-wheel Iron Horse Dandy built at Boston Lodge c. 1861, was still in existence and stored at the Ffestiniog Railway museum as of April 1992.

[10] The geography of the Ffestiniog Railway may have had some impact on allowing this imaginative solution to be applied to a large percentage of its total haulage; a relatively long section of track, running exclusively between two points, where a relatively constant and continuous downhill grade could be maintained.

[12] The term Dandy Wagon (regionally correct spelling) referred to a horse-drawn private buggy used in America during the 1800s.