As Ffestiniog Travel marks 50 years, the holiday company remembers Mair Watson.

She had an idea, which, by chance became the start of a business that has organised holidays for thousands of rail enthusiasts over the last half century.

Ffestiniog Travel founder and director, Alan Heywood, said in 1969 Ffestiniog Railway was looking for somebody to help them in the booking office.

Mair had worked at Butlins before joining as booking clerk at Harbour Station.

Alan said: “One of the things we did apart from selling tickets for the FR was to sell British Rail tickets.

“British Rail wanted to de-staff stations but not close the railway. They asked Ffestiniog Railway to take over as a type of clearing house for ticketing. Mair and I inherited this task, together with the late Alan Skellern.

“We were selling domestic rail tickets for the UK, but people who were on holiday here, particularly from the Netherlands, would come to the booking office asking for travel home.

“Mair was able to get them as far as the ferry port at Harwich but no further.

“She came to me and said, can we apply for a licence to sell the Sealink ferries and continental rail?

“I said well, we can ask, and we did!”

British Rail felt there wasn’t enough business in a rural area such as Porthmadog, but Alan persuaded them they could do it.

“I had at the back of my mind that the Ffestiniog Railway Society had about 5,000 members and they would undoubtedly support us when it came to booking tickets at continental railways as railway enthusiasts, then we weren’t just relying on local people.

“We should pay tribute to Mair as, in a manner of speaking, it was the start of where we are now.”

Mair, who died in 2009, was with the company until she retired, working closely with Alan selling continental rail journeys and running the ticket office.

Granddaughter Leah Watson is now manager of the FfWHR’s Spooners bar and restaurant.

She remembers her nan would put her, her brother and sister on the train in the summer holidays and send them up to Blaenau Ffestiniog with money for a Mars bar and drink.

Leah said: “Nain would be waiting for us on the platform when we got back and check with the guard we had been good!”

Mair was also a kind and thoughtful colleague and friend to all who knew her. Whenever help was needed, somebody to work late, cover a Saturday duty, or even babysit for colleagues with young families, Mair was first to volunteer.

Beddgelert Station Mistress, Sarah Buchanan remembers ‘Auntie Mair’ handing out hydration drinks to the loco crew in the guards’ room on hot days and insisting they drank it all, however nasty it tasted.

This October, there is a celebration tour to the same destination in Switzerland as the original tour in 1974.

Find out more about taking your own railway adventure abroad with Ffestiniog Travel Rail Holidays of the world.