Weekly Exhibit

Nameplate from the French Company Corpet & Louvet locomotive, works No.936 of 1903. This metre gauge 0‑6‑0 tank was built new for the Compagnie Française de Chemins de Fer a Voie Étroite for their line from Nantes to Legé. After a decline in traffic, the railway was sold for dismantling and scrap in 1934.

Shortly afterwards, Nantes was acquired by the Waltham Iron Ore Company to work on their metre gauge ironstone railway in Leicestershire. Waltham Quarries closed in 1958, and the locomotive was scrapped in 1960.

Amongst the collection of headboards is this painted board used for Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society AGM specials. The close up photograph shows it carried by TR locomotive No.1 at Wharf Station. The second photograph was taken by R.K.Walton on 27.9.1958 of the Talyllyn Railway AGM special on the Cambrian approaching Aberdovey with the headboard carried by 9018.

A pair of Lynton & Barnstaple Railway uniform buttons.

This open wagon is based on a Festiniog Railway design of about 1850. It was owned by the Oakeley Quarries Company and used to carry coal to the quarries for firing the boilers of steam pumps and winding engines. The wagon has double doors at one end only for loading and unloading. Its heavy wooden framing is reinforced with metal plates and strips and the wheels are carried on inside bearings attached to the wooden frames.

Another book with a slate theme recently added to our collection is “Llechwedd and other Ffestiniog Railways” by Ivor Wynne Jones and Gordon Hatherill.

On loan to the museum is the headboard carried on Beyer, Peacock and Company Garratt No.138 hauling the first passenger train over the full length of the rebuilt Welsh Highland Railway. The train was for Gold & Silver Project Sponsors. The public service started in February 2011.

A hanging card timetable from 120 years ago for the Jersey Railways and Tramways service from St Helier’s to Corbière. The line to La Corbière opened in 1884, when the original standard gauge line was extended and re-gauged to 3ft 6in. The line closed in 1936.

Last week we featured the nameplate from Sanford, the 0-4-0 W.G.Bagnell saddle tank converted into a brake van for use on the Penrhyn Railway. A comment was made that the works plate existed, and indeed both plates are in our museum.

The nameplate from Sanford, an 0-4-0 W.G.Bagnell saddle tank locomotive works no.1571 of 1900. It was purchased by Penrhyn Quarry in 1929 from Maenofferen Quarry. In 1956 it was converted into a brake van for use on the main line to Port Penrhyn.

As part of the focus on the slate industry, following UNESCO listing, one of the additions to our book collection is this booklet issued by J.W.Greaves & Sons Ltd. It describes the use of electricity in their slate quarries, both above and below ground. This includes powered inclines and surface rail, as well as driving machinery in the slate mills.