William Finlay

This locomotive, works no 173L, together with its twin “Townsend Hook” (no 172L), was purchased new from Fletcher Jennings of Whitehaven in 1880 by the Dorking Greystone Lime Company, based at Betchworth near Dorking in Surrey. The narrow gauge railway was used to transport limestone from the quarry to the adjacent lime­burning kilns. The line was built to the unusual gauge of 3ft 2¼in.

It operated at Betchworth until the quarry closed its rail system in the early 1960s. It was then bought for preservation and after two owners was purchased by the museum in 2015.

The Talyllyn Railway has two Fletcher Jennings locomotives in service “Talyllyn” built 1864 and “Dolgoch” built 1866. Some rails from Dorking were purchased by the Talyllyn Railway in the 1960s.

The jigsaw puzzle picture was taken by M.Phillips on the 1st July 2016 at an event to mark the 150th birthday of “Dolgoch”. William Finlay had just been delivered to the museum, and was moved inside the museum some weeks later.

Further information on the Dorking Greystone Quarry