An appeal has been launched to get a new boiler for a little train which has run out of steam.

The Hugh Napier worked in the Penrhyn Quarry in Bethesda, Gwynedd, more than 100 years ago, shunting wagons of slate rubble from the quarry face to the tip.

After 50 years it was worn out and in 1954 it was dumped in a siding, finally arriving at Penrhyn Castle Industrial Railway Museum in Bangor in 1966. A new boiler to get the Hugh Napier back on track will cost £50,000.

At one time the engine worked on the higher quarry levels knows as Bonc Ffridd, and also on the main mill level known as Red Lion.

Since it arrived at Penrhyn Castle a great deal of restoration work has been carried out with some parts being fabricated from new, like the pistons, which were made by the Ffestiniog Railway in Porthmadog.

"We want the Hugh Napier to be more than a museum exhibit," said Penrhyn Castle's learning and communications manager Marian Gwyn. "For steam train enthusiasts everywhere this is a chance to return Hugh Napier to its full steaming glory."

Ms Gwyn said the last phase was to raise £50,000 to buy a new boiler. "It will bring this little locomotive to life," she said.

Hugh Napier's wheelsets have already been regauged to, I assume, FR 597mm gauge. Although it's supposed to be going to Boston Lodge for completion of the new boiler the National Trust previously stopped having built mid-job (which the BBC piece carefully doesn't mention), the regauging doesn't tell you anything about where it's likely to run mostly (the Castle looks like the plan); a 597mm gauge loco will normally run OK on 2' gauge track but a 2' gauge one will tend to fall off 597mm gauge pointwork.

Hugh Napier's wheelsets have already been regauged to, I assume, FR 597mm gauge. Although it's supposed to be going to Boston Lodge for completion of the new boiler the National Trust previously stopped having built mid-job (which the BBC piece carefully doesn't mention), the regauging doesn't tell you anything about where it's likely to run mostly (the Castle looks like the plan); a 597mm gauge loco will normally run OK on 2' gauge track but a 2' gauge one will tend to fall off 597mm gauge pointwork.

Only if the check rail clearences are wide enough. Otherwise it will ride up/jam/or bend the rail fixings!!

It would be nice if it could be returned to the Penrhyn Railway!

http://www.penrhynrailway.co.uk/