WELSHPOOL’S DOUGAL TO VISIT TAIWAN FOR SIX MONTHS
Gasworks locomotive is chosen for stardom at Far Eastern sugar festival – and possible overhaul.
TAISUGAR HAS INDICATED THAT AN OFFER MAY BE MADE TO CARRY OUT WORK ON DOUGAL TO BRING IT UP TO OPERATING CONDITION
ANDREW CHARMAN
Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway-based Andrew Barclay 0-4-0T Dougal could be returned to steam for the first time in five years by a Taiwanese sugar company, as part of its six-month visit to the country.
The 1946-built former Glasgow gasworks locomotive – which has not steamed since 2013 because it needs extensive boiler repairs and is too small for WLLR passenger services – departed for Taiwan at the end of September as part of a co-operation agreement between the railway and the Taiwan Sugar Corporation (Taisugar).
The company, which is covering the costs of Dougal’s visit, once owned more than 40 mills in the country but, since the decline in sugar production, now operates five preserved railways at some of its former mills.
A member of staff from the WLLR will accompany Dougal to Taiwan to oversee the unloading and technical inspection of the locomotive by Taisugar. WLLR Press Officer Andrew Charman says: “Taisugar has indicated that, depending on the results of this inspection, an offer may be made to carry out work on Dougal to bring it up to operating condition. No work will commence until the WLLR has been fully consulted and agreed to what extent, if any, restoration should be undertaken.”
Regardless of whether the green light is given for Dougal’s return to working order, it will be the star attraction at Taiwan’s annual Sugar Festival in December, the theme of which is to be ‘Taiwan & British Railway Culture Exchange’.
The agreement between the WLLR and Taisugar is similar to an initiative signed in 2017 between the WLLR and the Alishan Railway, another major line in Taiwan.
Mr Charman says: “Part of the agreement will involve the WLLR providing the benefits of experience gained in more than 50 years of tourist railway operation to Taisugar, while the return benefits will include technical assistance, particularly in the maintenance of 1979-built Diema diesel locomotive No. 17, which we purchased from Taisugar in 2004.”
WLLR Chairman Steve Clews added: “As Dougal is currently unable to work on our railway, the visit to Taiwan will enable the locomotive to make a major contribution to both cementing our growing relations with Taiwan and in promoting the WLLR to the increasingly important Far East tourism market.”
Dougal was supplied to Glasgow Corporation’s Provan gas works in 1946, and since 1969 has been based at the WLLR, to where it was donated by two members. When operable, it has been a popular attraction at the railway’s galas.