A sight that has mostly disappeared from our streets is a car adorned with badges, usually mounted on the front bumper. For safety reasons, modern car design negates this. Many organisations made badges for their members, and this is one for the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway Preservation Society which was formed in 1960 to provide support to the railway.
A postcard sent by Rev. W.V.Awdry to his friend Rev. Teddy Boston during his visit to the Talyllyn Railway in August 1952. He comments that he had been roped in as a part time guard.
An enamel sign from the Corris Railway.
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.