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Holy War is a preserved narrow gauge steam locomotive built in 1902, based at the Bala Lake Railway in North Wales. [1] It was the last steam locomotive to operate in a Welsh slate quarry. [2]
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| Holy War at Llanuwchllyn in August 1981 | |||||||||||||||
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Holy War is a preserved narrow gauge steam locomotive built in 1902, based at the Bala Lake Railway in North Wales. [1] It was the last steam locomotive to operate in a Welsh slate quarry. [2]
Holy War was built in 1902 by the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds, with works number 779. [3]
Holy War was delivered to the Dinorwic quarry in North Wales in May 1902. [4] It spent its whole working life in the quarry, alongside other Hunslet engines including Dolbadarn, George B, Maid Marian , Red Damsel, Wild Aster, Alice and Irish Mail. Holy War was named in 1908, [3] one of the quarry's locomotives with names commemorating racehorses which author and Member of Parliament Sir Gerald Nabarro called "extraordinary" and "eccentric". [5]
By 1967 Holy War was the last steam locomotive in operation in a North Wales slate quarry, [2] being withdrawn in November that year. [6] The quarry switched to lorries when Holy War was sold, [7] and closed in 1969.
When steam operations ended at the quarry Holy War was sold to J Marshfield-Hutchings. [3] Along with parts of Alice which had been bought for spares, Holy War went to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre in March 1970, [8] [9] where it was the Quainton Railway Society's only narrow gauge locomotive. [5] After being used in Buckinghamshire it was purchased by Rev Alan Cliff and returned to Wales in 1975, going to the Bala Lake Railway. [1] [9] Restoration of Holy War was completed in 1978 [10] and the locomotive entered traffic on Good Friday 1979. [1] [3] It was out of service for boiler repairs in 1985-87. [1] The Bala Lake Railway bought Holy War from Cliff in 1989. [1] A gala was held in June 2002 to mark the locomotive's 100th anniversary. [4]
Alice has also since been restored, and both locomotives now work on Bala Lake Railway.
Holy War appears in the children's book "Jack the Station Cat and the Great Little Trains Robbery".
The Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway (PB&SSR) was a 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow gauge railway intended to connect Porthmadog with the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways link terminus at Rhyd Ddu. Although some of the line was constructed between 1901 and 1906, it never opened and eventually became part of the Welsh Highland Railway.
The Hunslet Engine Company is a locomotive building company, founded in 1864 in Hunslet, England. It manufactured steam locomotives for over 100 years and currently manufactures diesel shunting locomotives. The company owns a substantial fleet of Industrial and depot shunting locomotives which are available for hire. The company is part of Ed Murray & Sons Ltd.
The West Lancashire Light Railway (WLLR) is a 2 ft narrow gauge railway that operates at Hesketh Bank, situated between Preston and Southport in North West England. The distance between the stations on the railway is 430 yards (393 m), though track extends eastwards beyond Delph station on ledge above the old clay pit which is too narrow to contain a run round loop. An extension of up to 435 metres (1,427 ft), running along the north bank of the fishing lake has been proposed. The railway has seven steam locomotives, three of which are in operating condition; two are currently being rebuilt and another is on static display. There are also two electric locomotives and many IC locomotives.
The Bala Lake Railway is a narrow-gauge railway along the southern shore of Bala Lake in Gwynedd, North Wales. The line, which is 4+1⁄2 miles (7.2 km) long, is built on a section of the former standard-gauge Ruabon–Barmouth GWR route that closed in 1965. Another section of the former permanent way is used by the Llangollen Railway. The Bala Lake Railway, which runs on 600 mm -gauge preserved rolling stock, is a member of the Great Little Trains of Wales.
The Llanberis Lake Railway is a 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow gauge heritage railway that runs for 2.5 miles (4 km) along the northern shore of Llyn Padarn in north Wales in the Snowdonia National Park. The starting point is the village of Llanberis at the eastern end of the lake, with the western terminus at Pen Llyn in the Padarn Country Park. The return journey takes around 60 minutes. The railway is one of the Great Little Trains of Wales.
Andrew Barclay Sons & Co., currently operating as Brodie Engineering, is a railway engineering company, specialising in the heavy maintenance, refurbishment and overhauls for both passenger and freight rolling stock. Based around its works at Kilmarnock, it is the only active rail engineering business in Scotland.
Hudswell, Clarke and Company Limited was an engineering and locomotive building company in Jack Lane, Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
There were more than a thousand British narrow-gauge railways ranging from large, historically significant common carriers to small, short-lived industrial railways. Many notable events in British railway history happened on narrow-gauge railways including the first use of steam locomotives, the first public railway and the first preserved railway.
The Penmaenmawr & Welsh Granite Co. owned and operated a major granite quarry on the north Wales coast located between Conwy and Llanfairfechan. Granite axe-heads and other implements from Neolithic quarries at Penmaenmawr have been found throughout Britain.
The Trefor Quarry railway was an industrial, 1 ft 11+1⁄2 in narrow-gauge railway connecting the Trefor granite quarry with the pier at Llanaelhaearn on the Llŷn Peninsula.
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.
The Penrhyn Port Class is a class of three narrow gauge steam locomotives built for the Penrhyn Quarry Railway (PQR). These locomotives were built by the Hunslet Engine Company between 1883 and 1885 and supplied specifically to work at Port Penrhyn near Bangor, north Wales. They were a variant of the standard Dinorwic Alice Class design.
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.
The Dinorwic Alice Class is a class of eleven narrow-gauge 0-4-0ST steam locomotives built specifically for the Dinorwic quarry. These locomotives were built by the Hunslet Engine Company between 1886 and 1904, and were designed and supplied specifically to work the many galleries of the quarry at Llanberis, North Wales.
Maid Marian is a preserved narrow-gauge steam locomotive built in 1903, currently based at the Bala Lake Railway in North Wales.
Cilgwyn quarry is a slate quarry located on the north edge of the Nantlle Valley, in North Wales. It is one of the earliest slate quarries in Great Britain, having been 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 his conquest of Wales. It is one of the major slate quarries in the Nantlle Valley area.
Cliff Thomas is a British railway author and journalist, particularly known for his works on narrow-gauge railways.
Gilfach Ddu are a series of well-preserved Grade I listed industrial buildings built to serve the Dinorwic slate quarry near Llanberis in Caernarfonshire, North Wales. The workshops compreise a complex of repair and maintenance buildings, that were built in 1870 to build and maintain the machinery used in the quarry. The complex includes saw sheds, patternmaking shops, a foundry with cupola, blacksmiths shops, fitting shops, stores, engine sheds, a canteen, the chief engineer's house, a hand operated crane and two waterwheels which provided the site with its power. Since 1972, the buildings have housed the National Slate Museum.
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.
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