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Announcing the first NARROW GAUGE WORLD ‘Special’ Announcing the first NARROW GAUGE WORLD ‘Special’

Manx Railways

Manx Railways

A Celebration

A Celebration Trains and Trams on the Isle of Man

David Lloyd-Jones David Lloyd-Jones

If ever there was an island crammed to the brim with railway interest, it has to be the Isle of Man. The author of this photographic survey has one huge advantage over most of his predecessors, in that he lives on the island and thus has found it relatively easy to be in the right place at the right time. Here are often once-in-a-lifetime shots taken from dawn to dusk in snow, rain and even blistering heat.

The result is a unique pictorial record of not just the Isle of Man Steam Railway but also the equally fascinating Manx Electric and Snaefell Mountain systems. The lesser narrow gauge lines at Groudle Glen and Great Laxey Mine also receive attention, as does the remarkable Douglas Horse Tramway. An informative text embraces the spectacular celebrations of various railway anniversaries, which attracted railway enthusiasts from around the world in the 1990s.

Publishing date: July 2009 FORMAT: 210 x 297mm, 96 pages, colour throughout. ISBN: 978-1-902827-19-3

ATLANTIC EDITIONS LTD

ATLANTIC EDITIONS LTD

West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH Tel: (0)1778 392032 (UK & Overseas) – E-mail: colletted@warnersgroup.co.uk

West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH Tel: (0)1778 392032 (UK & Overseas) – E-mail: colletted@warnersgroup.co.uk

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NARROW GAUGE WORLD – N0 61 ■ 2 A legacy of slate...

FIRST LINES

Andrew Charman, Managing Editor of Narrow Gauge World, has been getting some overdue exercise...

Above: The return of Quarry Hunslet Edward Sholto, in virtually original Penrhyn condition, is one of the major highlights of the year so far. Photo: Phil Thompson.

Slate quarries have been much on your Editor’s mind in recent weeks, for a couple of reasons.

The quarries of Wales, of course, gave us so much of our narrow gauge heritage today – not only in the form of complete railways, such as the Talyllyn, the Ffestiniog, the Corris, hopefully before long the Penrhyn, but in a host of locomotives that have provided motive power for many a heritage line not only in the UK but across the globe.

By far the most numerous of these locomotives were of course the Quarry Hunslets, particularly used in great numbers in the slate empires of Penrhyn and Dinorwic and surviving in pleasingly extensive numbers into preservation – in fact it is easier to name the little 0-4-0 saddle tanks that weren’t saved compared to those that were. Back in steam An event in recent weeks showed that Quarry Hunslets still have the ability to make headlines. After many years rusting across the Atlantic, and then a long restoration job, ex-Penrhyn Hunslet ‘Edward Sholto’ steamed for the first time in preservation, a credit to its proud owner Andrew Neale, a man who through his books and his publishing company Plateway Press has done a great deal for recording the history of the narrow gauge.

Looking pristine in the correct black livery, Edward Sholto is a credit to Andrew and his restoration team, and particularly interesting in that the loco has been restored to as close an original condition as was possible, even the badly damaged saddle tank being patched and repaired. As such it fulfills an important historical role in the story of these locos. Legendary surroundings Within days of viewing Edward Sholto for the first time, yours truly was exploring an environment where many other Quarry Hunslets worked, the Dinorwic Quarry at Llanberis. I’ve long wanted to take a good look at what remains of this monument to the slate industry, and if one is fit enough and determined enough, climbing to the higher levels reveals many a gem, machinery that was considered beyond recovery by the scrapmen, wagons still on rails where they have not moved for what is now half a century.

A particularly pleasing find was the remains of the Lernion level engine shed, at 1860 feet above sea level renowned as the highest such shed in the British Isles. But what my visit revealed most clearly was just what level of hardship the quarrymen must have faced in their daily working lives.

Myself and my colleague had the benefit of a warm Spring day with a cloudless sky, yet we picked our way past patches of snow and lumps of waste slate that could so easily cause a slip and a bone-crunching fall. In the depths of a Welsh winter, with the wind, rain and snow whipping across the levels, it must have been close to a vision of hell.

Curiously, the night before my Dinorwic adventure I saw the new movie Clash of the Titans while acting as taxi driver to my sons on a trip to Liverpool. The film was not at all impressive, but halfway through, when the hero was supposed to be walking into the underworld to confront Medusa, I realised he was actually walking up a slate incline, much of the movie, I later discovered, filmed at Dinorwic. Entry to the underworld – it’s a singularly appropriate image to Dinorwic and its workers, whose part in the industrial narrow gauge history of the UK should not be under-estimated... Season underway We’re moving into the high season now, with the narrow gauge lines opening up for business. Hopefully we will see a bumper summer, earning lots of revenue to fund future restorations. Make sure you do your bit – if you haven’t visited your local line for a while, why not pop in and see what’s new?

Andrew Charman

NARROW GAUGE WORLD – No 69

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