I would have hoped to be able to provide a picture with this, but on Saturday's visit to the Welsh Slate Museum at Llanberis, I discovered I had a flat camera battery and no spare (since rectified!).

Anyway...

The original 4' Padarn Railway from Dinorwic to the top of the incline down to Port Dinorwic was lifted in the 1960s and the rolling stock scrapped.

The notable survivor is Fire Queen (built 1848 ) which was withdrawn 1886 but bricked up in a shed at Gilfach Ddu until 1969 and is now preserved at the Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum.

Upon the withdrawal of Fire Queen and her stable-mate Jenny Lind in the 1880s, three 0-6-0 tank engines were introduced, being Dinorwic, Pandora (later Amalthea) and Velinheli - these three survived until the end of the railway in 1961 and were scrapped two years later.

There's a photo of Amalthea on the Pararn Lake Railway's website at this http://www.lake-railway.co.uk/about_history.html  and another one at this http://www.narrow-gauge.co.uk/gallery/show.php?image_id=2536&cat_id=161 

To my mind, it is one of the great losses to the slate industry that none of these survived. However... as I was poking around the Slate Museum, tucked away in the depths of the building that projects into the courtyard, I spied what looked like a nameplate for Velinheli.

On closer inspection, it was attached to what appears to be one of the water tanks from the engine, with the other behind it: am I right in thinking that something of Velinheli has in fact survived?

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Correct Vanoord. When I first found the tank hidden away in the yard a couple of years ago, one of the guides confirmed that it was the complete tank from one of the Padarn Hunslets. Didn't know why it was retained though. 'Tis a shame that the rest of the engine isn't lurking somewhere.....

One thig that has always puzzled me about both loco's that had that name, Why was Velinheli spelt with a V?

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Velinheli is the Anglicised spelling of Y Felinheli. This was common practice throughout Wales notable examples being Carnarvon, Conway, Festiniog. Over the years, most have reverted to their original Welsh spellings.

Vanoord, don't forget the transporter wagon in the museum at Tywyn complete with a Padarn Railway 2 foot gauge brake van.

I believe the WHR(C) has the remains of a further 2 foot gauge brake van also.

Velinheli was already dismantled before the scrapping started - you don't see pictures of it at work in the Padarn's last years, and paradoxically it probably explains why parts of it survive. The chimney is there as well as the tanks, here's a couple of pictures: http://benfisher.fotopic.net/p44639300.html  and http://benfisher.fotopic.net/p44639301.html . There are three pictures at the bottom of this page by Alan Chambers http://alan-lewis-chambers.fotopic.net/c815445.html  showing the remains of Velinheli's underframe before the scrapping of Amalthaea and Dinorwic started.

The remains of the travelling brake shelter (not strictly a brake van as the brakes were on the host wagon) that merddinemrys mentioned were moved from WHR(C) to Gelert's Farm a while ago; the vehicle had originally been recovered from someone's garden in central Bangor! It's one of the later wooden shelters, i.e. like the one at Tywyn rather than the older iron one at Llanberis.

some one visited the museum in tywyn who has the other wooden van, he was looking at the one in tywyn so he could put it back together.
Thorpey

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Velinheli was already dismantled before the scrapping started - you don't see pictures of it at work in the Padarn's last years, and paradoxically it probably explains why parts of it survive. The chimney is there as well as the tanks, here's a couple of pictures: http://benfisher.fotopic.net/p44639300.html  and http://benfisher.fotopic.net/p44639301.html . There are three pictures at the bottom of this page by Alan Chambers http://alan-lewis-chambers.fotopic.net/c815445.html  showing the remains of Velinheli's underframe before the scrapping of Amalthaea and Dinorwic started.

The remains of the travelling brake shelter (not strictly a brake van as the brakes were on the host wagon) that merddinemrys mentioned were moved from WHR(C) to Gelert's Farm a while ago; the vehicle had originally been recovered from someone's garden in central Bangor! It's one of the later wooden shelters, i.e. like the one at Tywyn rather than the older iron one at Llanberis.

Thank you Ben! :flowers:

I've not seen those photos before: it's a great shame that at least one of the locos didn't survive, especially given the preservation of the workshops at Gilfach Ddu at the same time.

I suppose the Padarn Lake Railway probably wouldn't have worked as a 4' gauge railway, but it certainly would have been unique...

Am I wrong in thinking that there was one an idea to run the Padarn Lake Railway in a loop around the whole lake, reusing the standard gauge track that one went into Llanberis? That would make a nice job for the tracklaying gangs that are about to run out of work on the Welsh Highland... 😉

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Am I wrong in thinking that there was one an idea to run the Padarn Lake Railway in a loop around the whole lake, reusing the standard gauge track that one went into Llanberis? That would make a nice job for the tracklaying gangs that are about to run out of work on the Welsh Highland... 😉

That is correct, it would have started at Gilfach Ddu proceeded along the Padarn tracked slighlty further than the present Llanberis Lake Railway, then turned left onto a new trackbed and left again onto the former LNWR line and terminated at the old LNWR station. It was proposed, I believe, by a different company to that which became the LLR Co. Relaying much of the LNWR line might prove troublesome now that a lot of it is under tarmac forming the Llanberis by pass and Cwm y Glo bypass.

I've not seen those photos before: it's a great shame that at least one of the locos didn't survive, especially given the preservation of the workshops at Gilfach Ddu at the same time.

Sadly, not quite the same time - Dinorwic seem to have had a fit of scrapping things they didn't think they could sell in the early 1960s, probably part of the pattern of decline that led to closure, auction, and then the safeguarding of the workshops. If you look carefully at one of those photos you can see Lady Madcap's frames about to be cut up (now, thankfully, replicated at Gelert's Farm). And the market for elderly locos of a gauge scarcely anyone else used (including in preservation) was at best theoretical. But yes, a great pity.

It's always puzzled me that the museum doesn't seem to make any sort of fuss about the surviving bits of Velinheli, but at least they're safe and under cover. Assuming some wheels the right diameter could be found, building a non-working replica with the original tanks wouldn't be a ludicrously extravagant exercise. In fact I can think of a firm in Caernarfon who'd have fun with the fabrication jobs involved.

It's always puzzled me that the museum doesn't seem to make any sort of fuss about the surviving bits of Velinheli, but at least they're safe and under cover. Assuming some wheels the right diameter could be found, building a non-working replica with the original tanks wouldn't be a ludicrously extravagant exercise. In fact I can think of a firm in Caernarfon who'd have fun with the fabrication jobs involved.

That would be an interesting project: presumably frames, wheels, cab and a replica of a boiler would be the main components to be fabricated, which would give a reasonable idea of what she looked like.

I'm sure there would be grants available for such a project: it would just require the desire to undertake it...

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