The Departments

What each one does, and how you can join in

The booking offices issue tickets to passengers over the counters at the stations, and also issue pre-booked tickets for party groups and individuals. This department also organises special trains, such as photographic, birthday, wedding or other celebration trains. Volunteers can progress from issuing tickets for the FR / WHR to issuing tickets for UK and Continental rail travel. Skills required include money handling, dealing with customers face to face and over the telephone, and 'unflappability'!

Although often seen as only a minor part of the railways, Sales and Catering provide essential income to enable the railways to continue to exist. This is also the human face of the railways that customers see, and therefore provides a big opportunity to impress customers and to help passengers have a good experience on our railways. It is also a useful skill to include on your C.V.! The reward for the volunteer is seeing the enjoyment that others gain from your work. The railways have shops at each main station, catering at Porthmadog and Tan y Bwlch and a licensed bar at Porthmadog. Skills required include shelf-stocking, money handling, offering general advice, counter service, basic food preparation, money handling, waiting-on skills, buffet service on trains. People to help customers/passengers by giving information and assistance from the Ffestiniog Railway Society stand, will also be very welcome indeed.

• A day in the life of a buffet steward

This is the department that runs the trains, ensures safety at all times, provides train guards and ticket inspectors, looks after the stations, provides signal persons, checks tickets, prepares the carriages for use each day, provides crossing keepers, controls train movements over both railways. This is definitely a 'front line' job, with most posts offering many opportunities to meet and look after the travelling public. Some of the jobs require many weeks of training, and are not for everybody, but many are open to all comers, particularly those involving station and carriage care! Skills required include customer care, money handling, cleaning, and those with a safety requirement include specialised on-the-job training from qualified personnel.

• A day in the life of a trainee guard

The main objective is to get people to visit and travel on the railways. In a world where continental travel is very much the norm, we have to actively sell the railway as a product to the North Wales holidaymaker. This is done by the design, production and distribution of advertising materials, attending trade shows, assisting with media production, press releases, customer surveys, and maintaining the railways' website. The continuing evolution of the Internet is giving many new opportunities where volunteers' expertise is needed to exploit this potential to the full. Skills required include, computer word processing, mailshot preparation, representing the railways at trade events and shows, any other marketing skills.

Our workshops at Boston Lodge may be the oldest in the world continually in use since 1832! However, we need 21st century skills to help us maintain our wonderful fleets of locomotives and carriages both ancient and modern. The romance of driving a steam engine appeals to many people, but is only gained after much experience at the Works. The normal route is from cleaning locomotives to trainee firing and after a qualifying period, fireman. Then, for the chosen few, it is possible to go on to become a steam driver after stringent tests and medicals. Diesel drivers take a different route, again involving a training regime, a medical and examination.
However there are many other openings at the Works, including machine tool work, joinery and carpentry, carriage building and maintenance, welding, fabricating, painting, routine repair, maintenance and refurbishment, electrical skills, specialist draftsman skills, and many more! Many tasks require skilled people, but there are also plenty of openings for people who are prepared to work hard, get dirty and learn through on-the-job instruction.

• A day in the life of a loco fireman

This department is responsible for the maintenance and development of the buildings, signs, stone walls, gardens, etc., all of which give the Railways their high quality image. The extensive range of buildings round the railways require continual work to keep them in good order, and there are often new building projects of which the building of our own Hostel and Training Centre at Minffordd recently is a good example. Once again there is the opportunity to gain new skills, (often handy for DIY back at home) under expert supervision. There are also plenty of jobs that require minimal skills - just enthusiasm to do a good job. Examples of these include gardening and painting.
If you have youngsters keen to get involved, this is an ideal start in railway life. Not only can the young people learn a lot about safe railway operation, they can also enjoy working alongside dad or mum on a worthwhile project and have the satisfaction of achieving something in a really wonderful part of the UK, for a unique organisation! Big working parties are held several times a year, often combined with social activities when railway friendships can be made or renewed.

This department provides the safe track without which the trains cannot run! This involves both minor and major maintenance of the track and track-bed, building new track-bed, and laying new track. Many departments of the railway join in this essential work in the quieter months of the year when we do not run daily train services. There is also a need for track gangs to carry out urgent maintenance on the tracks during the busy months, as well as cutting back line-side growth and working on the structures that support the track. If you want to walk the tracks, the only safe way to do it is to join our track gangs - ladies welcome too. The work can be heavy, is always out of doors, and coupled with working with highly experienced rail staff, can be very exhilarating.
We also maintain all the railway's heavy plant as well as this department's rolling stock, tools and equipment, mainly at Glanypwll depot. Mechanically-minded people are welcome to volunteer here at any time.

This department looks after the signals, carriage electrics, telephones and data transmission systems of the railways. The Ffestiniog pioneered the use of telephones, and has its own very extensive network of telecommunications systems. With six major installations, signals of course play a very important part in railway safety so this is a specialised area of work. However, inexperienced people are welcome to contribute too and learn on-the-job.
A good starting point for new signalling volunteers is to join one of the regular volunteer working parties. Normal S & T workload is made up of day to day maintenance, sorting out breakdowns, refurbishment, fault-finding and repairs.

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