On 3 December 2014 the Ffestiniog Railway was to achieve considerable success at the National Railway Heritage Awards when the new signalling scheme for Porthmadog Harbour station won the Signalling Award and the dramatic restoration of the long-disused station building at Tryfan Junction on the Welsh Highland Railway was also rewarded in winning the Volunteer’s Award. The two plaques presented to the railway at the award ceremony in December by Sir Peter Hendy, the current Commissioner of Transport for London, were formally unveiled at Porthmadog and Tryfan Junction on 2 May 2015 during the Ffestiniog Railway’s highly successful weekend marking the 150th anniversary of the first scheduled passenger trains over the line.
The plaque at Porthmadog Harbour station, before its formal unveiling with, from left to right, John Prideaux, Chairman of the Ffestiniog Railway Co and of the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway Trust, Howard Wilson, Chairman of the Ffestiniog Railway Society, and John Ellis, Chairman of the NRHA.
The group with the unveiled plaque at Tryfan Junction; from left to right are Nick Booker, Chairman Welsh Highland Heritage Group, Sir Peter Hendy, Commissioner of Transport for London, Dafydd Gwyn, Trustee Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railway Trust, and John Ellis, Chairman of the NRHA.