User:NWalesWanderer/Dolbadarn Steam Locomotive



Dolbadarn Steam Locomotive is a “Later Port Dinorwic Type” / “Dinorwic Port Class” steam locomotive built as Works No. 1430 by Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds in 1922.

History
The locomotive was ordered & built for Port Dinorwic Dock & supplied new with the name No. 2 where she worked on slate wagon shunting duties on the quays of Port Dinorwic harbour alongside No. 1 later named Lady Joan.

By 1936 No. 2 was replaced by a Ruston diesel locomotive at Port Dinorwic Dock & was transferred up to the various working galleries of the Dinorwic Slate Quarry where she entered service on the Penrhydd-Bach gallery. Due to the tight working environment of the quarry & hence the restricted loading gauge the cab was removed & wooden dumb buffers were fitted giving the locomotive typically more Alice Class appearance. In 1946 No. 2 was renamed Dolbadarn after the castle on the lake shores opposite the Dinorwic Slate Quarry.

Dolbadarn was first withdrawn from regular service on 22nd November 1950 due to a failed boiler examination; the boiler was duly replaced at the Gilfach Ddu works with an Alice Class boiler without a dome. She re-entered service at the quarry on the Sinc Fawr gallery where she continued working up to 26th May 1967, making her one of the last steam locomotives to work in a slate quarry in Britain.

Dolbadarn was returned to the Gilfach Ddu works where she was auctioned in 1969 & sold for £1,050 for the then projected Llanberis Lake Railway. Due to her poor condition at this time substantial repairs & rebuilding was undertaken to restore her to her original appearance & Indian Red livery in time for the opening of the first section of the Llanberis Lake Railway in 1970.

Dolbadarn’s livery was changed to the current lined Yellow Ochre for commercial marketing reasons however no further major work was required to the locomotive until 1995 when a boiler inspection condemned the firebox with a replacement boiler being required, the locomotive re-entered service on the Llanberis Lake Railway in 1998 complete with a new boiler, re-bored cylinders & a new air braking system concealed between the frames of the locomotive to meet new safety regulations.

Dolbadarn continues to this day to work on the Llanberis Lake Railway hauling tourist passenger trains along the shore of Llyn Padarn.

Related Wiki Pages

 * The Dinorwic Slate Quarry
 * Hunslet Engine Company
 * Preserved Hunslet Narrow Gauge Locomotives