Vale of Rheidol Railway locomotives

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No 7 Owain Glyndŵr taking water and oil at Aberystwyth depot.

No 8 Llewellyn at Devil's Bridge - at this time all three steam locomotives were allocated a TOPS code, and painted in rail blue livery.

No 9 Prince of Wales at Devil's Bridge Station on 6th July 2001

No 10 stands in the yard at Aberystwyth.

The Vale of Rheidol Railway, which runs from Aberystwyth to Devil's Bridge (Wales), opened in 1902, and was later operated by the Cambrian Railway, Great Western Railway and British Rail before being 'privatised' in 1989 and run as a heritage railway operation (though arguably it had operated as a Heritage Railway operation since the mid-1930's, when the GWR withdrew freight services and winter passenger services, rendering the railway wholly reliant on the tourist trade). It is built to 1 ft 11¾ in (603 mm) gauge.

[edit] Locomotive Details

The railway's locomotives may broadly be divided into four groups:

[edit] No. 1, & No. 2 (later 1212 & 1213)

The VoR commenced operations with two 2-6-2T locomotives constructed by Davies & Metcalfe of Manchester, Nos.1 and 2. These locomotives were given Nos.1212 and 1213 by the GWR when it took over the line on grouping. They were Davies and Metcalfe's first locomotives and a Great Central Railway boilersmith, Thomas Kay, provided expertise in their construction. The contract was given to a company previously inexperienced in locomotive building (although previously they were involved in the repair of locomotives and made injectors) because Mr. Metcalfe was an Aberystwyth man.

At times up to 1922 the railway when there was a need for extra motive power hired in Palmerston, an 0-4-0ST from the Festiniog Railway.

[edit] No. 3 (later 1198)

No. 3 was a small 2-4-0T locomotive, originally built by Bagnall of Stafford for a Brazilian cane plantation in 1896 but never delivered as the order was cancelled, Bagnall regauging the locomotive from 750 mm (2 ft 5½ in) to 2 ft 3 in (686 mm) when it was sold to the Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway and named Talybont. In 1903, after the failure of the Plynlimon and Hafan, it was purchased by the VoR, regauged to 1 ft 11¾ in (603 mm) and renamed Rheidol. The GWR numbered it 1198 in 1923, but it was withdrawn and scrapped the following year.

[edit] No 7, No 8, & No 9 (& re-use of '1213')

Shortly after taking control of the line, the GWR overhauled No.1212 and under the pretence of a 'heavy rebuild' actually built an entirely new 1213, the original presumably being scrapped. At the same time, two new locomotives (numbered 7 and 8) were built to the same design as the new No.1213 at the GWR's Swindon Works. In 1946, the GWR undertook a renumbering of the remaining locomotives inherited from pre-Grouping companies, and this saw 1213 being renumbered 9. No.1212 had been withdrawn in the 30's and after a while scrapped as it was found three engines could quite easily cope with day to day operation of the railway. Many people still believe that No.9 is one of the original Davies & Metcalfe Locomotives, as historians and many books are incorrect on the subject, successfully hoodwinked by Swindon Works. The works were very effective in their coverup, entitling the parts that made up the new No.1213 as 'spares' in the accounts book, as the GWR Board had only given them leave to build two new locomotives. A simple test to prove that No.9 is actually of the same vintage as Nos. 7 and 8 is to compare the working drawings between it and a Davies and Metcalfe locomotive – nothing of the original locomotive could possibly have fitted the new one.

Along with other ex-GWR locomotives, 7-9 retained their numbers under BR ownership. These three locos were the only steam engines to survive in BR's ownership after the end of mainline steam traction in August 1968, excluding steam powered cranes which remained in service until 1995. Under the TOPS numbering arrangements introduced at this time they were allocated Class 98 and were nominally numbered 98007-98009, but these numbers were never actually carried on the locomotives. All three locomotives and the rolling stock carried standard British Rail rail blue livery until the 1980's, when the locomotives were given more appropriate liveries they had carried in the past. The rail blue livery has now gone, but these three locomotives remain in use on the VoR today, now back in private hands through the ownership of the Phyllis Rampton Trust.

[edit] No 10 (& ancillary motive power)

The steam locomotive fleet is today supplemented by a single diesel locomotive, number 10, built by Baguley-Drewry and brought to the railway by the Brecon Mountain Railway during the time when the VoR was owned by the same company.

Additionally, there is a permanent way gang powered trolley, which replaced a Wickham trolley of the 1950's.

The Phyllis Rampton Trust, who own the VoR also have an extensive collection of narrow gauge steam locomotives, some of which have been displayed on the VoR in the past.

[edit] Summary of Locomotives

The table below lists all those locomotives owned by the VoR or built to its designs: