Welsh heritage railway wins major award for £5 million restoration project

Restoration of the historic Boston Lodge Works, the engineering base of the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways, has been recognised with a prestigious National Railway Heritage Award.

The £5 million project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Ffestiniog Railway Society and the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railway Trust, has restored and conserved many of the 19th-century buildings on the site while creating modern facilities to support the railway for decades to come.

Boston Lodge, near Porthmadog, dates back almost 200 years, is listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest railway workshop and is unique in having built steam locomotives in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

The railway received the Network Rail Award for best overall entry.

Director and general manager Paul Lewin said the project successfully balanced heritage and operational needs.

“One of the great wins from the project was finding current day uses for the buildings whilst maintaining their historic fabric,” he said. “It has enabled us to open the workshop to visitors through an innovative hosted tour programme.”

Nigel Burbidge, the new chair of the Ffestiniog Railway Company, paid tribute to former chair Dr John Prideaux, who led the project for more than a decade.

“Attention to detail, persistence and selecting strong partners resulted in a very positive outcome,” he said.

The redevelopment forms part of a broader heritage programme backed by a £3.1 million National Lottery Heritage Fund grant. The funding supports work to tell the story of the railway’s global industrial influence, involve more people in heritage engineering, and bring disused buildings back into use.

Boston Lodge engineers continue to carry out restoration and construction work for heritage railways across the UK.

The site has previously restored London Underground’s Jubilee carriage Met 353, built replica vehicles for the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway, and constructed specialist rolling stock for partners in England and Wales.

Staff also design and build locomotives, including the replica Manning Wardle Lyd, and undertake complex boiler work in-house.

For the first time, the public will be able to go behind the scenes at the workshop through guided tours beginning in 2026. Visitors will see where locomotives, carriages and wagons have been built and maintained for nearly two centuries. Tickets will be available via the railway’s website