SNOWDONIA railway heritage is being celebrated with a special loco display at London's King's Cross Station.

The Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways are showing two historic locomotives at the capital's station from Saturday, February 16 until Sunday, February 24.

A quarry 'Hunslet' locomotive from the Victorian era, called 'Velinheli,' and a vertical-boilered loco 'Chaloner,' built in Caernarfon, in 1877, will be on show.

Chaloner was built by the de Winton factory, known as the Union Works on Caernarfon quay. The historic de Winton site is close to the FFWHR's brand new £2.2M station building in Caernarfon.

Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways' marketing officer Chris Parry said: "Velinheli and Chaloner, are both diminutive but deceptively powerful steam engines, and were used to transport slate around the local quarries.

"They have now been lovingly restored to working order, and we are keeping our heritage alive to educate the younger generations.

"We are very grateful to our friends at the Leighton Buzzard Railway for allowing us to display Chaloner."

"For the duration of the visit, our staff and volunteers will be on hand at King's Cross to talk to the public and answer questions."

The locomotives will be rolled into King’s Cross at 1am, on Saturday, February 16.

The futuristic styled Caernarfon station will officially open to the public at the end of March, 2019.

Its construction has played a key part in Caernarfon's £16m Waterfront Development Project, led by Gwynedd County Council.

It is hoped the new building will provide improved facilities for visitors arriving by road or by rail from Porthmadog, where a major station improvement was completed in 2014.

The Ffestiniog Railway, itself, opened for business some183 years ago in a remote corner of North Wales,

The railway was initially used to carry slate from the quarries in Blaenau Ffestiniog to the sea at Porthmadog. There, it would be loaded on to ships which sailed all over the world.

Today, the Ffestiniog and sister railway the Welsh Highland Railway, form the longest heritage line in the UK.

The lines stretch 40 miles, coast to coast, from Caernarfon to Porthmadog and Blaenau Ffestiniog and showcase some of the most spectacular Welsh scenery.

The railways carry nearly 400,000 passengers each year and trains cover 63,500 miles, more than two and a half times round the earth at the equator.