Chaloner is a preserved narrow-gauge steam locomotive. It was built in 1877 at De Winton's Union Works in Caernarfon and is an example of their distinctive vertical-boilered design, used in the North Wales slate industry. [1]
Chaloner is a preserved narrow-gauge steam locomotive. It was built in 1877 at De Winton's Union Works in Caernarfon and is an example of their distinctive vertical-boilered design, used in the North Wales slate industry. [1]
Chaloner was supplied new to the Pen-y-Bryn slate quarry, Nantlle. Unusually for a de Winton locomotive, it was supplied with an overall cab. [2]
In 1888, it was sold to the nearby Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry. Pen-yr-orsedd leased the Penybryn tipping tramway in 1890, so for a while Chaloner may have continued to run on its original line. [3] It was withdrawn from service at Pen-yr-orsedd around 1950, and stored in a locomotive shed at the quarry with Kerr Stuart locomotive Diana .
In 1960, Chaloner was purchased by Alfred Fisher, who restored it to working order. [4]
The locomotive was used to haul the opening train of the 'Iron Horse Railroad' at Leighton Buzzard in 1968. The railway later became the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway. Though in poor condition it hauled trains there for several years, until replaced by more powerful locomotives needed for longer trains. It was housed at the National Railway Museum in York from 1977 until 1983.
Chaloner has received a new boiler fitted at Boston Lodge Works but apart from that is composed of entirely original material, making it unique among mid-Victorian locomotives.[ citation needed ] The newest part is the water tank which originated on a locomotive called 'Victoria' and dates from 1897. It has been successively improved since preservation. In 2011 it worked a train of two slate wagons and members from Caernarfon (opposite the works where it was built) to Porthmadog on the Welsh Highland Railway a distance of twenty five miles achieving speeds over well over 20 mph on the flat. A week later it worked to Blaenau Ffestiniog and back with slate wagons. Correcting the valves' size and other adjustments since then have seen further improvements to performance affecting economy.
During its display in the old de Winton works in Caernarfon a works photograph was discovered showing the engine as-built with its cab. A replica cab was built and fitted, but it made operating conditions difficult and it was removed and placed in store after two years.
Chaloner remains based at Leighton Buzzard. [2]
Chaloner was a visitor to the Ffestiniog Railway for the 150th Anniversary Celebrations in 1986. [5] It returned in October 1986 for an overhaul at Boston Lodge, including fitting of a new boiler. Another of a number of visits was the Festival of Steam Gala, May 1997.
It visited the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway around 1989 and 1998, and in 2006 visited the Welsh Highland Railway (Caernarfon). Other visits were made in 2011 [6] and 2019. It has visited 24 other railways, including some in France, Germany and Belgium.
The Ffestiniog Railway is a heritage railway based on 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow-gauge, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park.
The Welsh Highland Railway is a 25-mile (40.2 km) long, restored 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow gauge heritage railway in the Welsh county of Gwynedd, operating from Caernarfon to Porthmadog, and passing through a number of popular tourist destinations including Beddgelert and the Aberglaslyn Pass. At Porthmadog it connects with the Ffestiniog Railway and to the short Welsh Highland Heritage Railway. In Porthmadog it uses the United Kingdom's only mixed gauge flat rail crossing.
The Penrhyn Quarry Railway was a narrow-gauge railway in Caernarfonshire, Wales. It served the Penrhyn quarry near Bethesda, taking their slate produce to Port Penrhyn, near Bangor. The railway was around six miles (9.7 km) long and used a gauge of 1 ft 10+3⁄4 in.
The Croesor Tramway was a Welsh, 2 ft narrow gauge railway line built to carry slate from the Croesor slate mines to Porthmadog. It was built in 1864 without an Act of Parliament and was operated using horse power.
Russell is a narrow gauge steam locomotive originally built in 1906 for the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways (NWNGR), but most famously associated with the original Welsh Highland Railway (WHR), and now based at the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway in Porthmadog.
De Winton & Co (1854–1901) were engineers in Caernarfon, Wales. They built, amongst other things, vertical boilered narrow gauge locomotives for use in Welsh slate mines and other industrial settings. At least six De Winton locomotives have been preserved. But these quarry tramway locomotives, for which in the 21st century they are largely remembered, were just a small part of this company's engineering output.
Porthmadog Harbour railway station in Porthmadog, Gwynedd, North Wales. It is the passenger terminus of two narrow gauge railways: the Ffestiniog Railway, which was opened in 1836 to carry dressed slate from the Quarries around Blaenau Ffestiniog to the sea port of Porthmadog, for export by sea; and the Welsh Highland Railway, incorporated in 1923, which ran to Dinas. After rebuilding in 1997-2011, the other terminus is at Caernarfon, in sight of the Castle.
Caernarfon Station is the northern terminus of the narrow gauge Welsh Highland Railway, located in the town of Caernarfon. It was opened on 11 October 1997 when the line was constructed from Dinas.
The Nantlle Railway was a Welsh narrow gauge railway. It was built to carry slate from several slate quarries across the Nantlle Valley to the harbour at Caernarfon for export by sea. The line provided a passenger service between Caernarfon and Talysarn from 1856 to 1865. It was the first public railway to be operated in North Wales.
The Gorseddau Tramway was a 3 ft narrow gauge railway built in Wales in 1856 to link the slate quarries around Gorseddau with the wharves at Porthmadog. It was an early forerunner of the Gorseddau Junction and Portmadoc Railway and subsequently the Welsh Highland Railway.
Pen-yr-Orsedd quarry was a slate quarry in the Nantlle Valley in North Wales. It was one of the last slate quarries operating in North Wales and the last operating in the Nantlle Valley area, finally closing in 1979.
Dinorwic quarry is a large former slate quarry, now home to the Welsh National Slate Museum, located between the villages of Llanberis and Dinorwig in Wales. At its height at the start of the 20th century, it was the second largest slate quarry in Wales, after the neighbouring Penrhyn quarry near Bethesda. Dinorwic covered 700 acres (283 ha) consisting of two main quarry sections with 20 galleries in each. Extensive internal tramway systems connected the quarries using inclines to transport slate between galleries. Since its closure in 1969, the quarry has become the site of the National Slate Museum, a regular film location, and an extreme rock climbing destination.
Moel Tryfan was a narrow gauge steam locomotive built for use on the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways (NWNGRs) in 1874/5. The locomotive was an 0-6-4T single Fairlie locomotive built by the Vulcan Foundry near Manchester. It spent its entire working life on the NWNGRs and its successors the Welsh Highland Railway (WHR) and the Ffestiniog Railway (FfR).
Alice is an 0-4-0ST steam locomotive. It was built in 1902 by the Hunslet Engine Company for the Dinorwic quarry at Llanberis, in North Wales. It was originally called No. 4; there was an earlier locomotive called Alice which was built in 1889 and later renamed King of the Scarlets.
Cilgwyn quarry is a slate quarry located on the north edge of the Nantlle Vale, in North Wales. It is one of the earliest slate quarries in Great Britain, being worked as early as the 12th century. King Edward I of England was reputed to have stayed in a house roofed by Cilgwyn slates, during the Welsh wars of independence. It is one of the major slate quarries in the Nantlle Valley area.
Wrysgan quarry was a slate quarry near the village of Tanygrisiau, Blaenau Festiniog, North Wales. It was worked intermittently from the 1830s, and was worked continuously from c.1850 until 1946. Wrysgan was an underground slate quarry, which was located on a small inaccessible site, some 1,390 feet (420 m) above sea level, to the west of Cwmorthin.
Diana is a narrow gauge 0-4-0T steam locomotive. It was built by Kerr, Stuart and Company in 1909, and was delivered to the Kerry Tramway in Mid Wales, in 1917. After varied service in the Welsh slate industry, Diana was purchased by railway enthusiast Graham Mullis in 1964. After many years at a variety of location, Diana was purchased by a Talyllyn Railway volunteer in 2014, and restored to working order in 2015.
Gloddfa Ganol was a museum dedicated to the Welsh slate industry and narrow-gauge railways, situated in the Oakeley slate quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog. It opened in 1974 and closed in 1998 following an auction of its exhibits.
Alexandra quarry was a slate quarry in North Wales, on the slopes of Moel Tryfan in north Gwynedd. It was part of one of the major slate quarrying regions of Wales, centred on the Nantlle Valley during the 19th and 20th centuries. Output increased when a connection to the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways branch to Bryngwyn was created. It closed in the late 1930s, but was subsequently amalgamated with the Moel Tryfan quarry, and production continued until the 1960s.