Voices of the Collection

Welcome to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum's "Voices of the collection" accessible audio trail, this is stop number 1.

You are on the footplate of William Finlay, on here you have chance to experience first hand what it's like to be in charge of a steam locomotive, you can open the regulator, throw the reverser and even toot the whistle, have a go, its great fun, but… let us imagine for moment, from under the roof of our cosy museum, shrouded from the elements, that we are some 150 years into the past, that roof replaced with threatening skies as the atmosphere around you picks up into bitter gales.

Picture now, for we are no longer in the narrow gauge railway museum but the unforgiving working conditions of a victorian limestone quarry some 180 miles south east in Surrey, where william finlay would have once called home.

Now open the regulator, throw the reverser, but feel as the relentless chill of the wind wraps itself around your hands, so numb are they, you can barely get your grip as you turn the valves, you would wish for some warmth, but they are much too hot to touch without a rag in hand. To make things worse, lets remove the cab over your head, for this locomotive was not built with one, you're at the complete mercy of the elements now, but even still the fire at your feet is less than a pleasant companion. This then is william finlay, and her story tells that of the many hardy railwaymen of this industrial age.

She was built in 1880 along with sister engine Townsend Hook, and bears striking resemblance to a couple of other engines you may have passed by today at Tywyn wharf station, the two Talyllyn Railway originals no less. All of these locomotives were built by messrs fletcher jennings and co of Whitehaven, Cumbria, the company was already familiar to William Finlay's prospective owners Dorking Greystone Lime Company upon placing the order, as they had previously taken delivery of Captain Baxter, a standard gauge equivalent from the same firm. With a total production of engines numbering under 300, Fletcher Jennings left but a small footnote in the pages of locomotive history, thus it's quite remarkable that not only do all the engines mentioned here survive to this day, but that you can catch three of them in one place here in Tywyn.

Welcome to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum’s “Voices of the collection” accessible audio trail, this is stop number 2.

It's the 1870s and the Guiness brewery in Dublin Ireland had a problem, a problem that without a solution, would seriously stunt the company's growth in operation. The answer of course, was a narrow gauge railway.

This venture was under the supervision of one Samuel Geoghegan, who quickly rose to the position of chief engineer in the company; and his task, to interconnect the vast brewery, was of no small feat. The site's two halves not only split by about 50 feet in height, but also a street between them. Geoghegan's solution was one rather unlike most railways, his rendition would have a steep spiral tunnel to make good the discrepancy in height, but the clearances were set to a very small loading gauge indeed, and the engines brought in to work it, just couldn't manage. So Geoghegan took matters into his own hands, the result was a steam locomotive unlike any other, in fact, it didn't even look like a steam locomotive at all. The motion and cylinders were situated up off the ground, like a traction engine, but drove the wheels via vertical connecting rods, and instead of mounting to the boiler, the cylinders were fixed to the locos unusual vertical frames which ran the full height of the engine, also supporting the water tanks, giving the loco its unusual armored appearance. This design then, gave the power required to work the steep spiral, but in a compact form factor for the small loading gauge, it gave the maximum protection for the moving parts, and yet maintained accessibility for ease of maintenance.

If that wasn't enough, another product of Geoghegan’s ingenuity, resulted in these narrow gauge locos of 1 foot 10 inches also able to work the irish standard gauge line of 5 feet 3 inches that connected the brewery to the mainline, this was by way of a “haulage wagon” that the locos were lifted into, and sitting on rollers, would drive the wagon, enabling it to shunt both gauges, turning an already unique narrow gauge loco, into an even more unique irish standard gauge one.

Of course however, technology marches ever forward, and by the 1940s, Guinness were already looking at internal combustion replacement for their steam fleet, and in the following decades this once distinctive innovation in the narrow gauge story seemed to all but be confined to the history books, something that was recognised by a fledgling narrow gauge railway museum and, by way of contact with Guinness chairman Sir Hugh Beaver, who by stroke of luck had residence at nearby Brynglas and was familiar with the Tywyn area, secured no.13, as the first loco in the NGRM collection.

Welcome to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum’s “Voices of the collection” accessible audio trail, this is stop number 3.

From the middle of the 20th century, internal combustion had begun to displace steam locomotion on a vast scale in narrow gauge industry, a clear vision of the future. But how did we get here? Let’s go back into the past, to look at one of the earliest surviving examples of one of the pioneering ancestors to these machines, resident right here in the museum.

Amongst the earliest of applications for internal combustion locomotives were in environments where steam power just wasn’t suitable, and it was on this advantage that locomotive builder Baguley described their engines to prospective customers, quote: “The internal combustion locomotives principle advantage lies in the fact that it can be used under special conditions, where it would be impossible to use a steam, owing to the fire and smoke. It also has the great advantage that, when the work is not regular, it can be left standing until it is required for use, and started at a moment's notice. It can be run into shops and works without danger of fire or fouling the atmosphere by smoke and steam, and for shunting work where loads are not being dealt with all day it possesses very great advantages as it can be started up at once, deal with the loads, and the whole cost can be stopped on completing its work. It also can be worked entirely by one man.”

Baguley was one of the earliest companies to offer commercially viable internal combustion locomotives, various fuel arrangements were available including paraffin and petrol, of which no.774 here in the museum is one such example, this type developed from a smaller horsepower version built for the trench railways during the first world war. It was delivered to Machynlleth in March 1919, purchased by the Timber Supply Department for similar light railway work, and is believed to have been employed on the temporary forestry tramways at Pennal, only a few miles from its eventual home in Tywyn. It ended its working days however at the oakley quarry at blaenau ffestiniog walled up in a disused mill and forgotten.

Thankfully of course, it was saved for preservation, and this important piece of narrow gauge history can continue to tell the story, not only of the early development of internal combustion power, but also one of the many differing solutions to the unconventional work of the light railway.

Welcome to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum’s “Voices of the collection” accessible audio trail, this is stop number 4.

In the days before the wide advent of the motor lorry, it was the light railway that delivered materials to the jobsite, shuffled parts around workshops and moved the produce of agriculture. Many early ventures into this concept were deemed unsuccessful, but amateur engineer Authur Heywood thought he might have the answer.

On one extreme of narrow gauge industrialisation lay Heywood's belief in what he called “the minimum gauge railway”, exploring the smallest gauges fit to do useful work. He was of the opinion that such railways would be most advantageous for the task, being more cost effective, easy and quick to construct, and likewise to move. To put his theory into practice, he constructed the duffield bank railway in the grounds of his Derbyshire home, with a gauge set at only 15 inches. The railway featured steep gradients and sharp curves, the stock included both goods and passenger vehicles, which, no less, featured a dining car for 8 people complete with kitchen and a sleeping car with toilet, demonstrating the versatility of Heywood's innovation. Unfortunately the concept was not the success he had hoped for, bar the interest of the Duke of Westminster, who requested such a railway for the Eaton Hall estate in Cheshire.

Few Heywood artifacts survive into preservation, here at the museum we have a small collection from both Duffield bank, and Eaton hall estate. The latter railway was served by a total of three locomotives, and on display we have their cast nameplates. The first engine, called Katie (of 1896), has the most varied history, ending its days as a wagon on the Fairbourne railway before being dismantled, its remains were donated by the NGRM to the ravenglass and eskadale railway, another of its former homes, where happily the engine steams in reconstructed form on special occasions. The other two engines, Shelagh (of 1904) and Ursula (of 1916), were both of the same design. The two engines spent their whole working lives at Eaton, both being scrapped in 1942. Upon Katie's departure from Eaton, its nameplates were transferred to Shelagh. As well as the locomotive name plates on display, we also have several wagon build plates too, as well as a tipper wagon. The wagons were built at Heywoods Duffield bank workshops, which included its own foundry, casting items such as the plate track and sleeper on display, a description of the works includes reference to the cast iron track, and the tipper wagon may well have served there too.

Welcome to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum’s “Voices of the collection” accessible audio trail, this is stop number 5.

Narrow gauge railways played a pivotal role in the war effort, from delivering supplies to the front lines, to constructing airfields back home. In the first world war the capacity and versatility of the railways, moved vast quantities of materials, munitions and troops on a scale undreamt of to the infant road equivalents of time.

Just about every aspect of the narrow gauge spectrum was employed to aid in the fight. Railways on the front lines needed to be deployed quickly and moved with ease, with all the advantage of the development of the light railway. Steam locomotives, with their proven, unmatched ability for the continuous movement of heavy loads, delivered troops and supplies, whilst their fresh faced internal combustion counterparts found the war the catalyst for their development, and proved ideal for the rough terrain and not revealing allied location through steam and smoke.

Back in the UK, munitions factories laid a veritable spider’s web of internal narrow gauge networks, to deliver parts and munitions. One of the largest of these operations was the Woolwich Arsenal Railway, of which the 18” gauge wagon as part of this display belonged to. Although Woolwich ran locomotives, wagons like this would often have also been pushed by hand, being loaded in and out of the production lines. In the days before health and safety, working in these environments was extremely hazardous, not just for the risk of explosions, but also exposure to toxic chemicals. The women handling the powder to produce TNT were nicknamed the canaries, as it turned their skin bright yellow!

Although quite naturally you might associate the royal air force with, well air, they also made good use of rail based transportation. Upon its formation in 1918 the RAF inherited various railway networks which served both training and operational requirements around their sites, moving air force personnel, fuel, supplies and more. One such network became RAF Manston, which in 1918 took delivery of two Andrew Barclay E class locomotives, one of which would happen to find itself preserved in Tywyn on the Talyllyn railway some 35 years later. No.6 Douglas celebrated its 100th birthday in 2018 alongside the RAF centenary, with the locomotive donning a commemorative RAF blue livery complete with iconic roundels. It remains today, although perhaps unconventional, the oldest working piece of RAF machinery.

Welcome to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum’s “Voices of the collection” accessible audio trail, this is stop number 6.

Perhaps narrow gauge's most famous application was in that of the slate industry of North Wales, the coming of which not only transformed the regions many small scale localized operations into a economical boom that dominated the area in the second half of the 19th century, but left its forever mark on the landscape, in culture, politics and the lives of the generations that worked and lived it. In 2021 the impact of the welsh slate landscape was recognised as a unesco world heritage site.

No place speaks louder to this calling than the Penrhyn Slate Quarry near Bethesda, its existence tells us the extent of the slate story, from its conception, to its height and eventual downfall. The story of locomotion at Penrhyn takes us to the peak of that arc, with the rapid expansion of operations at this time the decision was taken to introduce steam locomotives to work the quarry railway. Dewinton of Caernarfon, who already supplied Penrhyn with machinery, delivered the first locomotives, it was this maker that built George Henry, the locomotive we have here in the museum. The dewinton locomotives were of distinctive design, they featured vertical boilers, influenced by the marine engines the firm also built, upon this were mounted the vertical cylinders which drove the crank axle, and thence the wheels.

George Henry was named after George Henry Douglas-Pennant, of the Douglas-Pennant family, who owned the penrhyn quarries and penrhyn castle, for which their wealth was used in part to develop, Wealth that was derivied from the slave trade, the abolison of which they strongly opposed. The most notable member of this family was perhaps George Douglas-Pennant, father to George Henry. George would assume the title of Lord Penrhyn upon his father Edward’s death. Lord Penrhyn was firmly opposed to trade unionism, and it was in the year 1900 that tensions finally boiled over. In action against Lord Penrhyn’s prosecution of 26 of his workers, the quarry's workforce set to strike over unionism, fairer pay and safer working conditions. It was to be the longest act of industrial action in British history, lasting three years, and set in motion vast cultural changes to North Wales that were to take place in the years that followed.

Welcome to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum’s “Voices of the collection” accessible audio trail, this is stop number 7.

The Dinorwig slate quarry at its height, was the second largest slate quarry in the world, employing over 3000 men and covering over 700 acres of mountain landscape, consisting of 40 stepped galleries in total. Workings here lasted for nearly 200 years, and although operations ceased in 1969, today its Victorian workshops are now home to the National Slate Museum, to preserve and safeguard this important part of Welsh industrial history.

The expansive workings at Dinorwig were interconnected through its internal inclined narrow gauge railway system. When steam power was introduced in the second half of the 19th century, the quarry would begin an association with the Hunslet engine company of Leeds that would produce perhaps narrow gauge's most celebrated design - the ubiquitous quarry hunslet.

However, such esteem wouldn't have been worth much in the hostile environment of the quarry levels. In the wind and rain, without so much as a cab for crew comfort, a working day aboard a quarry hunslet, hauling trains of slate and rubbish high up in the mountains would be a rather unpleasant place to be indeed.

Our example here in the museum is “Rough Pup”, named after a race horse, it is one of many such examples of the alice class of quarry hunslets to work the Dinorwig galleries. Rough Pup would have been delivered as a kit of parts, transported up the inclines and into the mountains. Once reassembled, it would now spend most of its working existence on the level it was set to work, only being brought back down for major overhauls. Repairs therefore were work-a-day, and Rough Pup maintains an excellent example of this even today. Since arriving in Tywyn for preservation, it has remained in virtually the condition it finished work at Dinorwig in 1960, aside from a coat of paint. It retains the bangs and scratches, crude welded repairs, and even the wonky chimney caused by a rock fall, a testament to the incredible lives these locomotives endured.

Welcome to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum’s “Voices of the collection” accessible audio trail, this is stop number 8.

Unlike its Penrhyn neighbour, At Dinorwig the more conventional narrow gauge system did not take the slate produce all the way to port. The journey was interrupted between the quarry and port Dinorwig by way of the Padarn Railway, and its unusual transporter wagons.

The Padarn Railway was the informal name given to the railway, part of the Dinorwig system, that carried the quarry slate wagons for nearly 7 miles alongside Llyn Padarn to Penscoins, before reaching Port Dinorwig for export.. It was in use by 1843, and in 1848 received steam power in the form of two locomotives named Fire Queen and Jenny Lind, the former although replaced in the 1880s still survives, and is now on display.

The Padarn Railways most distinctive feature was its transporter or host wagons that, once loaded, enabled the small 1 foot 10 ¾ inch gauge slate wagons to be worked in sets of 4. Now you might be forgiven for believing that is as far as the narrow gauge connection goes, however we are indeed looking at the Padarn Railway here, for it was 4 foot in gauge, and thus, while on the extreme end of narrow gauge, does indeed still fit that description. At the end of each of these trains the host wagons would carry a “Sentry Box” van, as we have on the museum example here. These were acting brake vans for the train, and although a vehicle of the same gauge as their slate wagon counterparts, they rarely left the host wagons at all.

The Padarn railway, like the rest of the Dinorwig system, closed in the 1960s, thankfully however not all is lost: the aforementioned Fire Queen, the last remaining host wagon here at the museum and the Llanberris lake railway, running on part of the former Padarn route, now preserve its unique history for future generations.

Welcome to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum’s “Voices of the collection” accessible audio trail, this is stop number 9.

The transportation of goods utilising wagons riding upon rails is of course much older than the steam locomotives so famed for hauling them. Many of these early railway concepts were devised from the need to haul produce to market quicker and at higher volumes than the humble packhorse could provide. And so, when the industrial revolution in north wales brought with it the rapid development of slate quarrying into what would ultimately become its most dominant industry, this swift change to the advantage of the railway would promise to reshape this landscape forever.

The wagon in front of you once ran on the Nantlle Railway, one of such pioneering railways. It was completed between 1828 and 1830, running for just over 9 miles connecting the quarries of the Nantlle valley to Caernafon for export. Construction was in the capable hands of railway pioneers George and Robert Stephenson, the rail was of the early fishbelly wrought iron type, and the gauge to a nominal 3 foot 6 inches; however, of interest is the double flanged design of the wagon wheels, capturing the rails on both sides with the wheel floating loose on the axle. This allowed each wheel to follow any variance in the track, rather than keeping the rails strictly to gauge.

Wagon loads were operated as a “rail turnpike”, initially 6 pennies per ton/mile, despite the haulage fee, this was still less than half the cost of the packhorse equivalent transportation. Wagons therefore featured identification, to show where specifically they had come from, usually in the form of a unique symbol. To the quarrymen that worked these systems, a name would have been all but useless in the days where they could not read. The trains were hauled by horse, and although part of the route was upgraded to standard gauge for steam power, horses continued to haul 3 foot 6 inch trains right until the end of operation in 1963.

Like most railways in the uk, Nantlle came under public ownership in 1948 as part of British Railways, and consequently in the age of sending humans to the moon, the rise of computers and the formation of the beatles, a british railways employed horse was drawing trains of slate on its variable narrow gauge rails, as it had done, for well over 100 years. Such was the 1960s as the last major stand for the Victorian industry, standing side by side with the modern world.

Welcome to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum’s “Voices of the collection” accessible audio trail, this is stop number 10.

Beyer, Peacock and company was founded in 1854, they set up shop at their newly established Gorton foundry in Manchester and went on to become one of the great giants of independent locomotive builders, constructing around 8000 by journeys end in 1966. For the narrow gauge, the company introduced the, equally famous as they are impressive, Beyer-Garret articulated locomotives, for which they outshopped over a thousand. All of that is not to say however that Beyer Peacock didn't also have time for the smaller things. Little Dot here in the museum certainly fits that description, and to tell her story we need to hop about 20 miles up the road from Gorton to Horwich.

In 1887 John AF Aspinal, locomotive superintendent of the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway, placed an order with Beyer Peacock on a matter concerning the company's new Horwich works. In 1883 John Ramsbottom, of LNWR prominence, was appointed as consulting engineer regarding the planning of the works. He advocated for an internal narrow gauge network of 18” gauge, to convey materials around the complex, modelled in similar design to that he had previously installed at the Crewe works in 1862. Beyer Peacock built four small engines suitable for the work, with the latter three destined for Horwich, firstly Wren and Robin, followed later in the year by Dot. However this is not the Dot preserved in the museum today, for that was the other engine, also named Dot and was destined to stay at Gorton with the maker on its own 18” gauge internal system.

According to the official catalog these engines were “specifically built for working on tramways, in yards and workshops” - a job they did very well indeed. In the days before the forklift truck, they were considered essential for transporting heavy parts, materials and in the case of wren, delivering workers pay packets, with a strong box fitted in its diminutive tender for the purpose.

Thankfully both Dot and Wren survive to this day, Dot being donated to the Narrow gauge railway museum straight from Beyer Peacock in 1961, and Wren now resides at the Bury Transport Museum as part of the national collection, only a stone's throw away from its old home.

Welcome to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum’s “Voices of the collection” accessible audio trail, this is stop number 11.

There were many divides between the Talyllyn statutory railway company, and the quarry network of Bryneglwys for which it was built to serve. One of these were its wagons, only the hardy enthusiast would have ventured so far as to see the humble slate slab wagon, never being so graced as to visit its railway neighbour in all its long life.

Perhaps the reward for such a venture would be somewhat underwhelming, for, these simple but rugged wagons were of completely unremarkable and standard design, having existed to much the same general outline of wooden posts and iron fittings since at least the late 18th century; well before John Pugh began quarrying in the mountainous region above what is now known as the village of Abergynowlyn.

The routine of the quarrymen would have been loading huge quantities of uncut slate onto these wagons, day after day, year after year, the arduous journey by man and by horse power out of the bowels of the mountain and to the cutting sheds where the large slab of blasted rock would be shaped into the prized delicate tiles. Many quarrymen would have sacrificed their health and their lives to the deadly slate dust of this process ultimately resulting in silicosis. Slate quarrying was a very wasteful process indeed, only the right slabs for the job would do, anything less was simply discarded, thus the iconic sight of the slate tipped mountains throughout North Wales. Indeed nearly 80 years since its closure, it is a scar Bryneglwys still bears today.

These little unsung heroes of the welsh slate industry bodged and banged their way along splitting iron rails and rotting sleepers, until of course, well nothing can last forever and by the 1950s the scene at Bryneglwys was a somber one, from its sudden cease of quarrying operation in 1946 the years since had left but decay in their wake. However the humble slate slab wagon still had a future yet. Through scavenged original timbers and iron work the Narrow gauge railway museum has reconstructed one of these wagons; it now represents one of the few remaining accessible pieces of Bryneglwys quarrying history.

Welcome to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum’s “Voices of the collection” accessible audio trail, this is stop number 12.

The Reverend Wilbert Awdry, creator of the Railway Series and Thomas The Tank Engine, volunteered here in Tywyn on the Talyllyn Railway from as early as 1952. Many of his books were based on real events and anecdotes that happened at the railway from those pioneering years, infamously, in our world, it was not Peter Sam that left the refreshment lady behind, but Wilbert himself.

Wilbert discovered the newly founded Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society in 1951, its first year of operation under the new regime, unfortunately his family holiday for that year was already booked! So his initial visit had to wait until the following year. He had signed up as a volunteer right away, and upon arriving in Tywyn was sent, flag in hand, straight into the position of Guard. His dedication to the society was strong, even in his senior years Wilbert still found ways to support the railway, at the days end for his book signings on the Wharf platform, proceeds went straight into the donation bucket.

It was Talyllyn pioneer LTC Rolt that suggested the notion of the railway making it into the authors writings, although the publishers, having just settled on the fictional island of Sodor, were unwilling for a branch in Wilbert's attention, and so it was worked in accordingly as the Skarloey Railway, a fictional Talyllyn equivalent.

The Awdry family have generously left many of Wilbert’s possessions and artifacts to the Talyllyn Railway, and here in the museum they recreate a sense of the writers study in his Stroud home, featuring his own typewriter, on which some of his famous books were written, his smoking pipe, glasses, clerical cloak, and his model railway of thomas the tank engine’s branchline station Ffarquar, which despite its 1968 vintage, still operates at events and exhibitions today. Wilbert was indeed a keen railway modeller, some of the models featured on display here were even used by the illustrators of the books when painting the iconic characters.

The railway series of course led into the famous TV adaptation, Thomas the tank engine and friends. In the museum we are fortunate to exhibit, next to Wilbert's models of his Skarloey characters, the authentic TV show model of one of these, Skarloey himself, seen on screens from 1998 to 2008 - now on display just a stones throw from the real life engine that inspired it. This props appearance here is with many thanks to Mattel; and with their blessing, the Talyllyn Railway preservation society have, all these years later, celebrated the life and works of the reverend wilbert awdry and his dedication to the Talyllyn Railway, in the Awdry Extravaganza events held here in Tywyn.