 | ||
This is a list of past and present rolling stock used on the Talyllyn Railway (Welsh: Rheilffordd Talyllyn), a 2 ft 3 in (686 mm) narrow gauge preserved railway line running for 7.25 miles (11.67 km) from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. The line was opened in 1866 to carry slate from the quarries at Bryn Eglwys to Tywyn, and was the first narrow gauge railway in Britain authorised by Act of Parliament to carry passengers using steam haulage. Despite severe under-investment, the line remained open, and in 1951 it became the first railway in the world to be preserved as a heritage railway by volunteers.
Contents
- Locomotives
- Visiting locomotives
- Carriages
- Goods wagons
- Narrow Gauge Railway Museum rolling stock
- Liveries
- In fiction
- References
When first opened, the railway owned two steam locomotives, Talyllyn and Dolgoch, and five carriages, including one brake van. There were no additions to the rolling stock until the line was taken over in 1951. Two ex-Corris Railway locomotives were then purchased from British Railways, and subsequent additions have brought the total up to six steam locomotives, four diesels and twenty-three carriages.
Locomotives
The railway has six steam locomotives for passenger trains and five diesel locomotives that usually haul only works trains. It is unusual for all steam locomotives to be operable at one time, as there is usually at least one locomotive undergoing overhaul.
Visiting locomotives
As of 2015 there have only been two visiting locomotives capable of running on the Talyllyn Railway's unusual gauge. These are Motor Rail Simplex diesel No. 5 Alan Meaden and Winson Engineering and Drayton Designs No. 7 Tattoo class design similar to the Talyllyn's No. 4. Both these are locomotives from the Corris Railway.
In July 2015 a gala was held to mark the railway's 150th anniversary, and two 1 ft 11 1⁄2 in (597 mm) gauge locomotives visited the railway: George England and Co. locomotive Prince from the Ffestiniog Railway and Hunslet Engine Company Russell from the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, both in Porthmadog. Two lengths of temporary track were laid at Tywyn Wharf to allow the locomotives to operate over a short distance.
Carriages
The Talyllyn railway has a total of 23 carriages. The first five are the original carriages built for the railway, though they were not provided with numbers until preservation in 1951. After that time, the remaining carriages were built by the railway or acquired from elsewhere. With the exception of ex-Corris carriage No. 17, all the bogie coaches were built for the railway after preservation; the smaller four wheeled coaches are generally older.
All the stock is third class only, unless otherwise stated. Where two figures are given for the number of seats, the larger figure is the maximum number of passengers than can be carried in a heavily loaded train.
Goods wagons
The Talyllyn Railway was primarily constructed for conveying slate. Prior to the beginning of the 20th century, the railway owned over 115 wagons, mainly slate wagons, but also a number of other general and special purpose goods wagons. Some of these survived into the preservation era, and since then a large number of additional wagons have been purchased and built. The following table lists the main types of wagon currently in use:
Narrow Gauge Railway Museum rolling stock
The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum is a purpose-built museum dedicated to narrow gauge railways situated on the Tywyn Wharf station. It owns several wagons formerly in use on the railway (listed above), as well as rolling stock and other artefacts from other narrow gauge railways around the world. The wagons are still used occasionally on the Talyllyn.
Liveries
The standard livery for locomotives on the Talyllyn is deep bronze green, lined in black and yellow, although since the 1980s there has been a policy of varying some of the liveries for a period of time.
The liveries carried by the steam locomotives as of 2015 are as follows:-
The vintage rolling stock and the carriages built for the line after preservation are cherry red, lined with deep bronze green. Additionally, the railway has preserved rolling stock from other railways. These retain their original liveries.
The Corris coach (Talyllyn No. 17) and brake van (Talyllyn No. 6) are brown lined with gold leaf and the two Glyn Valley Tramway coaches (Talyllyn Nos. 14 and 15) are green lined with white.
In fiction
Most of the locomotives have an equivalent counterpart on the fictional Skarloey Railway, a railway that forms part of The Railway Series of books by Rev. W Awdry and his son Christopher. The Rev. W Awdry visited the Talyllyn Railway on a family holiday in the early days of preservation and became involved as a volunteer soon afterwards.