Pen-yr-Orsedd quarry

Pen-yr-Orsedd quarry was a slate quarry in the Nantlle Valley in North Wales. It was one of the last slate quarries operating in North Wales and the last operating on the Nantlle area, finally closing in 1979.

Pen-yr-Orsedd quarry
Overview
Dates of operation1862–1979
SuccessorAbandoned
Technical
Track gauge3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm);
2 ft (610 mm)
"Blondin" aerial cableways at Pen-yr-Orsedd in 2002

History

Pen-yr-Orsedd was one of the major slate producers of the Nantlle Valley, supplying over 10,000 tons of product in 1864. It was also the last quarry in the vale that commercially produced slate, closing in 1979.

In 1862 the quarry was connected to the Nantlle Railway, with 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge lines extended to all but the highest levels of the quarry. Most levels of the quarry had both 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge and 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge trackwork, many with mixed gauge tracks. The Nantlle Railway connection was used up until 1963, while the internal 2 ft lines continued in limited use until the end of quarrying.

Tramways

Locomotives
Name Builder Type Works number Date Notes
Baladeulyn De Winton 0-4-0 VB Sold to Glynrhonwy Slate Quarry in 1895
Starstone De Winton 0-4-0 VB Thought to be sold to Glynrhonwy Slate Quarry in 1894 where it was renamed Padarn.
Inverlochy De Winton 0-4-0 VB 1877 Possible ex-Pen-y-Bryn Quarry. Scrapped 1937.
Glynllifon De Winton 0-4-0 VB 1880 Scrapped 1937
Rhymney De Winton 0-4-0 VB 1875 Scrapped before 1932[1]
Chaloner De Winton 0-4-0 VB 1877 Sold to a private collector 1960; now preserved at the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway.
Gelli De Winton 0-4-0 VB 1893 Withdrawn 1945, still intact at quarry 1952; believed scrapped
Pendyffryn De Winton 0-4-0 VB 1894 Sold 1965, now restored to working order at the Brecon Mountain Railway
Arthur De Winton 0-4-0 VB 1895 Scrapped 1956
Victoria De Winton 0-4-0 VB 1898[1] Scrapped 1956
Kelso Vulcan Foundry 0-4-0 VB 1893 Withdrawn 1945, still intact at quarry 1952; believed scrapped
Britomart Hunslet 0-4-0 ST 707 1899 Sold in 1965, now privately owned and running on the Ffestiniog Railway
Sybil Hunslet 0-4-0 ST 827 1903 Sold in 1965, now privately owned
Una Hunslet 0-4-0 ST 873 1905 Sold in 1963. Now in working order at the Welsh Slate Museum, Llanberis
Diana Kerr Stuart 0-4-0 T 1158 1909 ex-Oakeley Slate Quarry, Blaenau Ffestiniog.[2] Privately owned, and based in 2018 on the Amerton Railway
No. 1 Ruston & Hornsby 4w DM 235712 1945
No. 2 Ruston & Hornsby 4w DM 235711 1945
No. 3 Ruston & Hornsby 4w DM 226298 1943
No. 4 Ruston & Hornsby 4w DM 226264 1943
4w PM Sold or scrapped

See also
  • British industrial narrow gauge railways

References
  1. "The Penyrorsedd Stand at the Olympia Exhibition, 1928". Gwynedd Archives, ID: XS/1245/29. Caernarfon Record Office.
  2. Quine, Dan (March 2015). "Private railways of the West Midlands in the 1960s". Narrow Gauge World.
  • Boyd, James I.C. (1990). Narrow Gauge Railways in North Caernarvonshire, Volume 1: The West (2nd. ed.). The Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-85361-273-0.

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