Welsh slate loco finds its ‘forever home’

A 123-YEAR-OLD steam loco that saw 27 years’ service with Welsh Slate, the current operator of Penrhyn slate quarry, has found its ‘forever home’ at Aberystwyth, mid-Wales. The Manning Wardle 0-4-0ST Jubilee 1897 – similar in appearance to the ‘Quarry Hunslet’ design – has been sold to the Vale of Rheidol Railway, which had been its ‘foster home’ for the past two years. The 1897-built loco worked at a number of North Wales slate railways until preservation in 1955.

After cosmetic restoration it was displayed at the Narrow Gauge

Railway Museum Trust (NGRM), at Tywyn until 2016. It then moved to Felin Fawr, near Bangor, North Wales, where the now-defunct Penrhyn Quarry Railway (PGR) project was being developed. It was dismantled for overhaul but four months later the PGR project collapsed and the Vale of Rheidol Railway offered accommodation for the parts while the NGRM established a way forward. Now, the Vale of Rheidol Railway is the permanent home for Jubilee 1897, which will be restored to steam by 2023.

After LMS 45212 failed with tender brake issues, Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2T 41241 replaced it on ‘mince pie’ trains on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway on December 30, 2020. With the sun full in its face, the 1949-built 2-6-2T climbs out of Keighley with the 1430 to Oxenhope. (Andrew Southwell)

The last of the day’s sun picks out 1937-built Barclay 0-4-0ST 705 as it approaches Marsh Mills North with the 1530 from Plym Bridge on December 6, 2020. The Plym Valley Railway received a £27,900 grant from the £1.6bn Culture Recovery Fund. (Bernard Mills)