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Visiting locomotives from other railways at Alston in 2002. |
1. Hunslet 0-4-0 saddle tank locomotive �Alice�. Works No. 780.
(Now based at the Bala Lake Railway, Llanuwchllyn, near Bala, North Wales.)
Introduction:-
Two visiting steam locomotives arrived at Alston in late July 2002 to take part in the Gala Weekend at Alston on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th August 2002. At that time both of the locomotives - a Hunslet 0-4-0 saddle tank with open cab named �Alice� and a De Winton 0-4-0 vertical boiler tank named �Chaloner� were both based at the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.
Photo: Hunslet 0-4-0 saddle tank �Alice� and De Winton 0-4-0 vertical boiler �Chaloner� at Alston in August 2002. Photograph by Robin Alderson.
The following information was compiled from an article entitled Alice, by Cliff Thomas and Alan Cliff, which was published in British Railway Modelling magazine, dated January 1995.A Brief History of Locomotive �Alice�:-
Alice, a Hunslet 0-4-0 saddle tank, used to work in the Dinorwic slate quarries at Llanberis, in North Wales. Built in 1902, as Works No. 780, the locomotive was originally called �No. 4�. There was an earlier Alice which was built in 1889 (Works No. 492), later re-named King of the Scarlets.
There were 15 similar engines supplied between 1886 and 1932, the first of which was Velinheli (Works No. 409 of 1886), but for some reason, the Class was named after the first �Alice�. Over 46 years a number of changes were made to the design, some so substantial as to warrant an unofficial sub-class known as the �Port� Class.
Alice, in common with most of the class, did not have a dome but a steam chamber produced by the firebox outer shell being raised some six inches above the boiler barrel. It was not usual to fit cabs to these engines since they had to work under incline bridges and through tunnels in the quarries.
Alice spent all of its life working on various galleries at the Dinorwic slate quarry. The locomotive was in consequence rarely photographed. By the early 1960s the locomotive was out of use and was partially dismantled to provide spares for her sister locomotives at Dinorwic. She was parked looking very sorry for herself in a shed at the Australia gallery.
When the quarry at Dinorwic closed in 1969, Alice�s remains were still at the Australia gallery, however the wheels and underparts had been salvaged and these were sold as spares for her sister locomotive Holy War.
The Restoration of Locomotive �Alice�:-
Photo: �Alice� after her lengthy restoration, posed at Pages Park, on the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway, on 10th September 1994. Photo by Cliff Thomas.
Holy War, Hunslet Works No. 779, which was the last steam locomotive to work in a slate quarry, ending her working life in November 1967. Holy War was purchased, along with the spares from Alice by J. Marshfield Hutchings and went to Quainton Road, Buckinghamshire. In 1975 Holy War and the spares from Alice were purchased by the Rev. Alan Cliff, Vice-President of the Bala Lake Railway Society and brought to Llanuwchllyn, the headquarters of the Bala Lake Railway, and were leased to the railway.
In the meantime, the remains of Alice were rescued somewhat heroically and were taken to the West Lancashire Light Railway at Hesketh Bank, near Preston. In 1977 these remains, namely the locomotive�s frames and tank were acquired jointly by Alan Cliff and George Barnes, who was then the General Manager and Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Bala Lake Railway. Their acquisition meant that what remained of Alice was together again.
The Bala Lake Railway was loaned the parts of Alice and announced that it intended to rebuild the locomotive as an 0-4-2 tender locomotive. However, many other priorities made that intention impossible, although some work was done on the frames.
In 1987, Chris Scott, then a Bala Lake Railway volunteer, bought the remains from Alan Cliff. The railway company had decided that it could not pursue the restoration, although it listed Alice as in their stock from 1977. Alan Cliff, who had been taken ill at the beginning of 1987 and forced to take early retirement, was in no position to spearhead a campaign to restore Alice. So when Chris Scott offered to purchase Alice and seek to restore her, Alan and the Bala Lake Railway were delighted. The remains of the locomotive were later moved to that owners garage.
Chris Scott, who was at that time, a volunteer fireman on the Festiniog Railway and it was the first outing for Alice after her long restoration was in April 1994 on the Festiniog Railway, initially in the yard at Boston Lodge and later on the full length of the main line up to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
On 19th June 1994, Alice arrived at the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway. On Saturday 10th September 1994, an interesting ceremony took place there during the railway�s Steam Gala event. Mrs Alice Hyde travelled down from Bala, in North Wales, to re-dedicate the name of the locomotive Alice. On the following day, Sunday 11th September 1994, Alice worked her first passenger train, double-headed with Barclay steam locomotive Doll. It was later fitted with its own braking equipment and operated passenger trains on its own.
Mrs. Alice Hyde, whose son, Bill, was a driver on the Bala Lake Railway, set up a bookstall to raise money of the locomotive�s restoration and Mr. Scott promised that when the engine ran again it should be re-dedicated to - and by - its namesake and benefactor. The locomotive later returned to the Bala Lake Railway in 2003.
2. De Winton 0-4-0 vertical boiler tank �Chaloner�.
(Normally based at the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire.)
Locomotive Details:-
Chaloner is an 0-4-0 vertical boiler tank built in 1877 by DeWinton, of Caernarfon, North Wales. The De Winton company premises was at the Union Foundry, whose main building still stands across the road from Welsh Highland Railway Station at Caernarfon. This firm produced ironwork still to be found throughout the area (for instance parts of bridges near the station), and specialised in supplying machinery for slate quarries.
These simple vertical-boilered locomotives owe more to marine engineering than to conventional railway practice, and replaced horse haulage in many quarries. Chaloner worked in the Nantlle Vale south of Caernarfon, first at Pen-y-Bryn quarry, at Nantlle and later at Pen-yr-Orsedd quarries nearby, and is the only original De Winton in working order. It is one of the oldest working narrow-gauge engines in the country and was the first steam engine on the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway, in 1968. Chaloner is a fine example of De Winton�s distinctive vertical-boiler design, which was used for many years in the North Wales slate quarries.
Photo: �Chaloner� photographed at Kirkhaugh in August 2002. Photograph by Daniel McIntyre.
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