List of Vale of Rheidol Railway rolling stock

This is a list of past and present rolling stock used on the Vale of Rheidol Railway (Rheilffordd Cwm Rheidol), a narrow gauge heritage railway, opened in 1902, that runs for 11+3/4 mi between Aberystwyth and Devil's Bridge in the county of Ceredigion, Wales.

The railway was later operated by the Cambrian Railways, 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 tourist railway operation since the mid-1930s, when the GWR withdrew freight services and winter passenger services, rendering the railway wholly reliant on the tourist trade).

When first opened, the railway owned two steam locomotives, No 1 Edward VII and No 2 Prince of Wales, along with a third contractor's locomotive No 3 Rheidol. In 1922 the Great Western Railway took over the running of the line and over the next two decades invested heavily in new locomotives and replacement rolling stock.

Steam locomotives
The railway has four steam locomotives for use on passenger trains, three of which were built for the Vale of Rheidol line and have operated on the line ever since.

A Garratt locomotive locomotive arrived in 2017 for use on passenger trains and is not prototypical for the line historically.

Diesel locomotives
The steam locomotive fleet is today supplemented by two diesel locomotives. Although they lack the power of the steam locomotives, they are available for shunting duties, works trains, and also operating light passenger trains.

Self propelled engineering plant
The railway has a number of vehicles for permanent way maintenance.

No 1, & No 2 (later 1212 & 1213)
The VoR commenced operations with two 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. The design draws inspiration from the Manning Wardle s on the then-newly opened Lynton and Barnstaple Railway, to which they bear some resemblance. This may be because the Szlumper family was heavily involved in both railways' design and construction.

No 3 (later 1198)
No. 3 was a small locomotive, originally built by Bagnall of Stafford for a Brazilian sugar cane plantation in 1896 but never delivered as the order was cancelled, Bagnall regauging the locomotive from  to  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 and renamed Rheidol. The GWR numbered it 1198 in 1923, but it was withdrawn and scrapped the following year, having never carried its GWR number.

No 4
In 1902 the railway's Directors temporarily hired a locomotive from the Ffestiniog Railway. The locomotive sent was Ffestiniog No 4 Palmerston. The following year VoR locomotive No 3 Rheidol was acquired (see entry above), but a need for a fourth locomotive was still discerned. Palmerston No 4 was therefore hired again from Ffestiniog, and became the regular fourth locomotive for the next twenty years, being hired for several long periods, interspersed with brief home visits to Ffestiniog. The locomotive carried fleet number '4' in reference to its position on its home railway, although the number also matched its position on the Vale of Rheidol, as the fourth locomotive. When the line was acquired by the Great Western Railway, the leased locomotive was no longer required and was returned to Ffestiniog (from where it was immediately re-hired to the Welsh Highland Railway, to assist with construction). Palmerston (an ) was built in 1864 by George England of New Cross, the fourth of the original four Ffestiniog Railway locomotives and was named after the Prime Minister, Viscount Palmerston. Palmerston returned to the Vale of Rheidol in 2014, hauling a series of special trains during September to celebrate its association with the VoR, and to commemorate both a century of history since the first world war, and 25 years of VoR independent operation.

Current coaching stock
The Vale of Rheidol Railway has a total of 16 carriages and 1 brake van. All were built by the Great Western Railway at Swindon to replace much older rolling stock built by the Midland Railway Carriage and Wagon Company for the opening of the line. Twelve bogie carriages were built for the opening.

All the stock is third class only, unless otherwise stated. All currently carry both their GWR numbers (on carriage sides) and also their VoR numbers (on the carriages ends).

Wagon Fleet
The railway has a number of wagons used for freight / engineering work.

Museum collection
The Vale of Rheidol Railway owns an extensive collection of historic narrow gauge locomotives and rolling stock which are and are destined for museum display at a future date.

Museum collection locomotives
At present none of these locomotives are available for public viewing with the exception of Wren 3114 and Quarry Hunslet Margaret.

Museum collection coaching stock
The railway owns a number of historic carriages from other railways. This is destined for museum display in future.

Visiting locomotives
The following locomotives have visited the railway in the past.