IBase

iBase refers to the host of the F&WHR Online Photo Archive, which since early 2016 has made available for public viewing many pictures from the FR Archives from the 1870s to the present day.

Its is here: http://www.ffwhresource.com/

As of March 2025 almost 6000 items are available for public viewing. The majority are photographs, but there are also films, drawings and maps.

Some pages on Festipedia refer to these pictures as 'iBase xxxx' where xxxx represents a number. To find the picture on iBase, go to the search box and type the number, without pressing enter. A drop down will appear with the "Item Identifier". Click on that and it will take you to the item page.

Access

Members of either of the Ffestiniog Railway Heritage Group or the Welsh Highland Heritage Group can apply for access to the images in high-resolution and without the watermark.

Please register with the web site and then use the the form from the home page to let the administrators know which Heritage Group you are a member of and what your membership number is.

Your status will then be verified as a Member by the Admin. This may take a day or two to happen, as the Groups have not in the past recorded all members’ email addresses - so your identity will be checked with the relevant Heritage Group.

Once verified you will be notified of your access by email to your registered address.

Rights and Copyright

All rights reserved. Do not reproduce images in whole or part without prior written permission.

Searching

The simplest searching is performed by using the free form search box in the top right of the page.

The wildcard (*) can be used in place of characters to widen the search. For example air* will find air, aircraft, airport, etc. Similarly silver* will find silver, Silverstone, silverfish, etc.

When searching for more than one word, or to omit words from a search, AND, NOT and OR can be used.

Here are some examples:

• A search for duck AND mallard will find only items that contain both duck and mallard.
• A search for duck OR mallard will find items that contain either duck or mallard.
• A search for duck NOT mallard will find items that contain duck, but will exclude items that also have mallard.

Location Search

The majority of the images have location information associated with them and so you can find them on the map.

You can start from the location search in the menu on the left and that will show the map with location of all the images that have a location associated with them. Now you can pan and zoom around the map to a place of interest and then press the "Search Area" button in the top right you will be taken to a gallery of the images in the area enclosed by the map.

Alternatively, when you already have a selection of results, you can use the "Search Within" in the top left and select "By Location". Note that only the select images that have location information will be displayed on the map.

Selections and Personal Collections

When you are logged in to the web site, you can keep a reference to some images of interest by selecting them and they will be collected together in the Selection menu on the left.

To select an image when you are on the search results, you will see a tick box appear on the thumbnail image as you hover over it.

When you are on the item page (that shows the image and the description) you can select the image with the Select button in the menu or just press the space key.

When you have selected some images you can add them to a collection and they will then appear in the "Personal Collections" menu on the left.

Personal Collections are only visible to you and only when you are logged in.