The last Haydn Jones train remembered
BY THE late 1940s the Talyllyn Railway (TR) was in very dilapidated condition. Of its locos, only Dolgoch was steamable but its boiler was 60 years old, and most of the railway’s track dated from 1865 and was in exceptionally poor condition. In autumn 1950 the future of the TR was very much in doubt. Unusual in being a public railway in the ownership of a single individual, it had been kept going by quarry owner, Sir Henry Haydn Jones, who bought it in 1911. The quarry it served closed in 1946 and when Sir Haydn died in July 1950 the railway seemed likely to follow. The final train, with Dolgoch, one carriage and the brake van, ran on October 6 that year.
Fortunately, a bid was made to save it and it became the world’s first preserved railway, re-opening in May 1951. A special train, the last under the late Sir Haydn Jones’ ownership, ran in November 1950 to inspect the line, but it derailed on the return and the party had to walk back. To mark the occasion the train was recreated on November 9, 2020 with No 2 Dolgoch hauling original carriage No 3 and brake van No 5. It coincided with the end of the Welsh COVID-19 ‘firebreak’, but was low key due to COVID restrictions.