Penrhyn Quarry Railway

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Penrhyn Quarry Railway
Loading of slate shingles in lorries on the Penrhyn Quarry Railway, around 1913
Loading of slate shingles in lorries on
the Penrhyn Quarry Railway, around 1913
Route length: 9.7 km
Gauge : Only 622 mm; later 578 mm

The Penrhyn Quarry Railway was a 9.7 km long, narrow gauge railway with a 1 foot 10¾ inch (578 mm) gauge from the Penrhyn slate quarry near Bethesda to Port Penrhyn near Bangor in Wales .

history

Llandegai Tramway (1798–1831)

Llandegai Tramway

The earliest forerunner of the Penrhyn Quarry Railway was the 1.6 km long Llandegai Tramway with a gauge of 2 feet ½ inches (622 mm), which was built and opened in 1798. She joined a local chert mill, in the flint from clay and Chert was recovered, with the coast at Port Penrhyn. It was one of the first over-day -Eisenbahnen Britain. There were two sections of cable car operated by two-way traffic to balance the weight from the bottom of the Cegin valley near Llandegai to the hills above Bangors and from there down to the mill. They were driven by vertical cable drums.

Penrhyn Railway (1801-1878)

Penrhyn Railway

The success of the Llandegai Tramway moved the owners of the Penrhyn quarry to build a similar narrow-gauge railway from their slate quarry to Porth Penrhyn. According to this plan, the existing line was extended to a narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 622 mm, which connected Bethesda with the coast. Construction began on September 2, 1800, and the first train loaded with slate ran on June 25, 1801. The branch to the chert mill was in operation until 1831.

The carts were pulled by horses and the following three cable cars were used in two-way traffic on the mountain routes, the longest of which was around 200 m long:

  • Port (also called Marchogion ) at Llandegai, which was taken over by the Llandegai Tramway
  • Dinas northeast of Tregarth and
  • Cilgeraint at the Coed-y-Parc workshops in Bethesda.

This reduced the transport costs from 4 shillings to 1 shilling per ton of slate.

Penrhyn Quarry Railway (1878-1962)

Penrhyn Quarry Railway

Since the early 1870s, the Penrhyn Quarry Railway was no longer up to the traffic. Therefore, in 1874, it was decided to switch the railway operation to locomotive operation without ramps with rope hoists, as steam locomotives were already being used successfully on the internal sections of the nearby Dinorwic Quarry . Modeled on the Ffestiniog Railway , a several miles long narrow-gauge line with a gauge of 2 feet (610 mm), its managing director Charles Easton Spooner was commissioned to survey the site and work out possible routes to the port. The directors of Penrhyn had good reason not to follow the example of the 4 foot (1219 mm) Padarn Railway , as they wanted to connect the existing light railways within the quarries directly to the main line. All the tracks in the Penrhyn quarries were supposed to have the same gauge so that costly reloading could be avoided.

At the end of 1875 the first mainline locomotive was delivered to Port Penrhyn and brought to the workshops in Coed-y-Parc. The railway line was relocated in five construction phases from 1877 to 1878 with the gauge of 1 foot 10¾ inches (578 mm).

The first cable section from the quarry near Bethesda to the north to the port, called Cilgeraint, was bypassed by a route running almost parallel to it with a slight gradient, the lower point of which was a little further north than the lowest point of the inclined plane . A similar approach was not possible for the other inclined sections, so the route was traditionally extended in order to minimize the incline: the new route changed direction from northeast to southwest in a 180 ° bend . It then passed a new stop at Tregarth before coming to another stop at Felin Hen, whereupon it went more or less in a straight line onto the original route at the lower end of the former Marchogion steep ramp.

The main task of the mainline was to transport finished slate shingles and fullersite called pulverized slate to Port Penrhyn, where they were then loaded onto ships, or from February 1852 onto the newly opened standard gauge Port Penrhyn branch of the Chester and Holyhead Railway .

A side job was the transport of blackboards, for which the port had almost a British monopoly in the 1930s, and of slate products that were pressed into blocks of bitumen in the workshops of Port Penrhyn . In the opposite direction there was no significant freight traffic, except for the transport of coal to the quarries, for which the railway line acquired a fleet of 50 coal wagons. In addition, machines and spare parts were occasionally transported on the railway line. The different gauges in the port area led to remarkable crossings and switches .

Mainline locomotive Charles with Lord Penrhyn's saloon car in the Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum
The former locomotive shed in Port Penrhyn (2004)

Lord Penrhyn had his own saloon car , which has been preserved in a museum.

Passenger trains were provided for workers when the shift changed, as well as special trains for visitors and dignitaries, but there was no public passenger transport. The open carriages for the workers, reminiscent of park railways , were unsprung and had no doors. When it rains, passengers usually use bags to protect themselves against the wet.

A total of 16 cars were procured in lots from 1878 to 1908 and numbered with letters from A to P. Each wagon was tightly packed and could transport 24 workers. Passenger traffic was stopped on February 9, 1951, after which the passenger cars became superfluous. Seven passenger cars are still preserved. Six were given to the Talyllyn Railway , where they were fitted with new car bodies with doors on only one side. One of the surviving wagons is on display at the Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum . The Moseley Railway Trust has car "O", where it came after it was acquired by Bressingham Steam and Gardens and several changes of ownership. The Moseley Railway Trust also owns a replica of the "H" car.

Another example of a passenger car, a cable car passenger car, is preserved in the Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum . Visitors and guests should be brought to the quarries in it so that it has inclined seats for the steep stretches.

Reconstruction initiatives

Restored section of the route, 2015

The Penrhyn Quarry Railway Society was founded with the aim of rebuilding part of the route and preserving the historical legacy of the Penrhyn Quarry Railway for posterity. The company Penrhyn Quarries Ltd in 2012 presented a short stretch of railway line at Felin Fawr, Bethesda, restore, and took it with the borrowed from Norfolk steam locomotive George Sholto the 50th anniversary of the closure again. Former members of the Penrhyn Quarry Railway Society founded the Penrhyn Railway Supporters in November 2013 after internal differences within the Society to support the operation. The Society then had to withdraw from the project.

The section between the Coed-y-Parc Bridge (Felin Fawr) and St. Anns, completed in phase 1, was around 300 m long. In a second phase, another 1.6 km should have been added towards the quarries. Public demonstrations have been conducted by Felin Fawr Cyf and PQR Engineering Ltd on previously announced weekends since 2013. In July 2017, without giving any reason, it was announced that all activities had been discontinued, and the vehicle fleet was hurriedly removed and deposited with various museum railway companies.

Locomotives

The following table lists the mainline locomotives between the quarry and the port:

No. Surname Manufacturer Type Construction year Shutdown Remarks
Bronllwyd (formerly "Fronllwyd" or "Coctinor") Valley Foundry, Holyhead 0-4-0 VB 1875 Scrapped in 1906 Used in railway construction by contractor Richard Parry
3 George Sholto Stephen Lewin or de Winton or Hughes 0-4-2 WT or 0-4-0T 1875 Scrapped in 1880 Not to be confused with the Hunslet , built in 1909 and still preserved today , which is also called George Sholto
Edward Sholto De Winton 0-4-0ST 1876 Scrapped in 1907 Not to be confused with the Hunslet, built in 1909 and still preserved today, which is also called Edward Sholto
Hilda De Winton 0-4-0T 1878 Scrapped in 1911
Violet De Winton 0-4-0T 1879 Scrapped in 1911 (or 1902)
Charles Hunslet 0-4-0ST 188 Exhibited at the Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum , Bangor Out of service since 1958. Static exhibit in need of restoration.
Linda Hunslet 0-4-0ST 1893 Now owned by the Ffestiniog Railway Rebuilt as 2-4-0ST / T
Blanche Hunslet 0-4-0ST 1893 Now owned by the Ffestiniog Railway Rebuilt as 2-4-0ST / T
1 Llandegai Baldwin 2-6-2 T 1916 1929 rebuilt as a stationary steam engine 1929, mothballed in 1931, scrapped in 1940 Formerly War Department Light Railways
2 Felin Hen Baldwin 2-6-2T 1916 Sold to Australia in 1940, now privately owned in France Formerly War Department Light Railways
3 Tregarth Baldwin 2-6-2T 1916 Decommissioned in April 1928, scrapped in 1940 Formerly War Department Light Railways

literature

  • James IC Boyd: Narrow Gauge Railways in North Caernarvonshire, Volume 2: The Penrhyn Quarry Railways . The Oakwood Press, 1985, ISBN 0-85361-312-5 .
  • Peter Johnson: North Wales (Celebration of Steam) . Ian Allan Publishing, Shepperton 1995, ISBN 0-7110-2378-6 .
  • JK Jones: The Little Penrhyn Railway . Cyhoeddiadau Mei, Caernarfon 1985, ISBN 0905775 21X .
  • Charles E. Lee: The Penrhyn Railway and its Locomotives-1 . In: Tothill Press Limited (Ed.): The Railway Magazine . 91, No. 557, London, May 1945.
  • Charles E. Lee: The Penrhyn Railway and its Locomotives-2 . In: Tothill Press Limited (Ed.): The Railway Magazine . 91, No. 558, London, July 1945.
  • Michael Messenger: Slate Quarry Railways of Gwynedd . Twelveheads Press, Truro 2008, ISBN 978 0 906 294 68 0 .
  • Ivo Peters: The Narrow Gauge Charm of Yesterday . Oxford Publishing Co, Oxford 1976, ISBN 0-902888-65-X .
  • Alun John Richards: The Slate Railways of Wales . Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, Llanrwst 2001, ISBN 0-86381-689-4 .
  • Alun Turner: Gwynedd's Lost Railways . Stenlake Publishing, Catrine, Ayrshire 2003, ISBN 978-1-84033-259-9 .
  • Susan Turner: The Padarn and Penrhyn Railways . David and Charles, Newton Abbot 1975, ISBN 0 7153 6547 9 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Penrhyn Quarry Railway  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richards, 2001, p. 27.
  2. ↑ Turner, 1975, pp. 42-43
  3. ↑ Turner, 1975, pp. 47-49.
  4. ↑ Peters, 1976, panels 115-118.
  5. ↑ Fuller Site wagon, on the website Festpedia
  6. ↑ Lee, 1945, p. 223.
  7. ↑ Richards, 2001, p. 49
  8. ↑ Peters, 1976, plate 149.
  9. ↑ Jones, 1985, pp. 7-9.
  10. ^ Turner, 1975, p. 43.
  11. ↑ Messenger, 2008, p. 13
  12. ↑ Peters, 1976, plate 115.
  13. ↑ Turner, 2003, back cover photo.
  14. ↑ Turner, 2003, pp. 42 and 123.
  15. ↑ Jones, 1985, pp. 15-17.
  16. ^ Turner, 2003, p. 42.
  17. ↑ Messenger, 2008, p. 12.
  18. ↑ Turner, 1975, p. 115.
  19. ^ Carriage "O" on the Moseley Railway Trust website
  20. ^ Replica carriage "H", on the website of the Moseley Railway Trust
  21. ↑ Exhibits from the Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum on Jaggers Heritage
  22. ↑ OS ref. SH 615662
  23. ↑ OS ref. SH 614661
  24. ^ Penrhyn Quarry Railway website
  25. ↑ Chris Milner: Penrhyn Quarry Railway ceases operation. In: The railway Magazine. Mortons Media Group Ltd., August 11, 2017, accessed August 18, 2020 .
  26. ↑ Lee, 1945, p. 224.
  27. ↑ Lee, 1945, p. 224.
  28. ↑ Turner, 1975, p. 108.
  29. ↑ Turner, 1975, p. 108.
  30. ↑ Lee, 1945, p. 224.
  31. ↑ Turner, 1975, p. 107.
  32. ↑ Lee, 1945, p. 224
  33. ↑ Lee, 1945, p. 224.
  34. ↑ Turner, 1975, p. 100
  35. ↑ Johnson, 1995, p. 99.
  36. ↑ Turner, 1975, p. 101.
  37. ^ Felin Hen - Interview with Patrick Mourot (Tacot des Lacs) - May 2011
  38. ↑ Turner, 1975, p. 102