The Locomotives
Graf Schwerin-Lowitz
This Locomotive was built by Arn Jung of Germany in 1908 and came from the now closed Mecklenburg - Pommersche Schmalspurbahn. It is an 0-6-2 well tank engine with auxiliary tender and weighs 14 tons. It was purchased from East German State Railway (Deutsche Reichbahn) in 1973 and came in very poor condition, and the final indignity was when its chimney was destroyed by a low bridge on the journey here. We gave it a complete rebuild and it entered traffic in 1981 and since then it has accumulated over 125,000 miles on this railway.
At present it is undergoing heavy repair in our workshop, but should be available for use again May 2010.
No. 2
No 2 was built by Baldwin of Philadelphia in the USA in 1930. It spent its working life hauling limestone near Port Elizabeth in South Africa. In 1974 it ran away driver-less and after travelling a few miles it left the track and was wrecked. It was treated as an accident write-off by the South African insurers and was purchased by us as salvage. It was shipped back as deck cargo to Liverpool and put into store. It is a 4-6-2 tender locomotive weighing 47 tons. We started rebuilding this locomotive in 1990 and it finally entered traffic in 1997. The rebuild was extensive as the loco. had suffered severe damage in the accident in South Africa. After 10 years burning oil it is now converted back to burning coal.
No. 26
This is an older Baldwin built in Philadelphia in 1898 for the Mogyana Railway in Brazil. Originally 2 foot guage it was converted to 2 foot 6 inches on sale to a Sugar Cane Mill in Northen Brazil, where it worked for many years. It is now converted back to 1' 11 3/4" gauge and the rebuild is well advanced. The next task is to build a new boiler and cab. It is a 2-6-2 tender loco. weighing 41 tons.
New Locomotives
We are building two new locomotives from the original Baldwin general arrangement drawings. This project started in 2002 and is enevitably slow and expensive, however much work hs been done and we are about halfway through the project.
Other Locomotives
We have three smaller locomotives which are not powerful enough for hauling trains on this railway.
"Sybil" - an 0-4-0 saddle tank loco., built by Hunslet Engine Co. of Leeds in 1903 for the Pen-Yr-Orsedd Slate Quarry in N. Wales.
"Pendyffryn" - An 0-4-0 vertical boiler loco., built by De Winton of Caernavon in 1897, again for the Pen-Yr-Orsedd Slate Quarry.
"Redstone" - An 0-4-0 vertical boiler loco., built by Mr Redstone - a foreman fitter for the Penmaenmawr Granite Quarry as a copy of a De Winton Loco. This was built for the Quarry owners children in 1903. These three locomotives are currently in our Workshop being prepared for display in working order in a small Museum at Pontsticill, together with a few working stationary Steam Engines.
The Workshop
All railway maintenance is carried out by the railways own paid staff, and in addition to routine repairs and servicing, complete locomotive rebuilds are carried out not only for this railway but other lines as well. Although some of the workshop machinery dates back to the turn of the 19th century, it still performs a useful job of work. The wheel lathe was built in the 1890's and came from Southend Pier where it was used for turning tram wheels.
In addition to boiler making, tank and cab riveting, wheel turning and machining on locomotives - carriages are also built. The five in use were all built here using bogies from South African freight cars and couplings from the Isle of Man. The four observation saloons were designed here, but the caboose was built to an original 1903 American drawing from the Sandy River Railroad in Maine.
