A railway dies when its heart is rotten and its owners no longer believe in it. In 1954, the narrow-gauge Festiniog line in North Wales was dead. It had turned away passengers, trees grew through its track, and its upper section was soon to be drowned by a hydro-electric scheme.
From the earliest days, when hordes of workmen struggled to build its mile-long embankment across the tide-ripped Glaslyn estuary, the line had a threatened existence. But the latest disaster seemed final.
Railway expert Robert Symes uncovers the background story of the Festiniog's many brushes with death, and how a new generation of determined men brought it triumphantly to life once more.
Film cameraman PETER CHAPMAN Film sound IAN SANSAM
Film editors COLIN JONES , GEOFF MOORE Producer ROBIN BOOTLE