NWNGR - Moel Tryfan and Snowdon Ranger

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NWNGR - Moel Tryfan and Snowdon Ranger
Factory recording (1875)
Factory recording (1875)
Number: 2
Manufacturer: Vulcan
Year of construction (s): 1875
Retirement: 1937
Type : C'2 'n2t
Gauge : 597 mm
Fixed wheelbase: 1,067 mm
Total wheelbase: 4,559 mm
Service mass: 14.7 t
Friction mass: 10.7 t
Driving wheel diameter: 762 mm
Impeller diameter: 483 mm
Cylinder diameter: 216 mm
Piston stroke: 356 mm
Boiler overpressure: 96.5 N / cm²
Grate area: 0.56 m²
Water supply: 1.6 m³
Fuel supply: 0.5 t coal

The Moel Tryfan and the Snowdon Ranger were the first two steam locomotives of the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways (NWNGR) running in a gauge of 597 mm .

The locomotives built by Vulcan Foundry in 1875 were of the rare Single Fairlie design, in which the coupling axles were mounted on a bogie and swiveled in relation to the boiler, making it easier to drive through tight bends.

Originally the locomotive did not have a train brake; In the first years of the 20th century, however, a compressed air brake system was installed, with the air compressor being located in the driver's cab of the vehicles .

In 1917 both locomotives were in very poor condition, and because the railway company could not afford spare parts, the better preserved parts of both locomotives were used to assemble a locomotive, which was later referred to as Moel Tryfan . The motor bogie of the Snowdon Ranger and the superstructure of the Moel Tryfan were probably used. The remaining parts were scrapped.

After an overhaul in the Boston Lodge Works of the Ffestiniog Railway (FR), the Moel Tryfan was used by the Welsh Highland Railway (WHR) from 1923 . It is unclear whether the locomotive was also used on the FR network from this point in time and, like the Russell locomotive , had to be reduced in height, or whether this was not the case until 1934. There are no known photographs of the locomotive on the FR tracks.

When the WHR ceased operations in 1937, the locomotive was in the process of being overhauled at the Boston Lodge Works, and it was there that the FR was shut down in 1946.

When the FR was reactivated as a museum train in the early 1950s , the locomotive was classified as unsuitable for restoration and sold as scrap in 1954. This decision is controversial among railway enthusiasts today, but was unavoidable at the time for financial reasons. Only the running bogie remained, and its wheelsets were later used to convert the Blanche and Linda locomotives from the B wheel arrangement to 1'B locomotives.

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