A few hours driving a Quarry Hunslet
An invitation by Bressingham Steam Museum trustee Robert Ellis to spend a few hours driving newly overhauled ex-Penrhyn Gwynedd hauling a train of slate wagons was too good to turn down.
Gwynedd is a Hunslet 0-4-0ST (316/1883) Penrhyn ‘Port’-type loco built for the slate quarry operation to work at Port Penrhyn. The loco was laid up in August 1954 when Penrhyn’s rail operations ceased, and entered preservation in May 1965. It was bought by the late Alan Bloom in 1966 for use on the Nursery Railway being constructed at Bressingham in Norfolk, entering service in 1967.
After withdrawal because of firebox problems in 2007 the loco was stored until Bressingham volunteers launched the Gwynedd Restoration Project in summer 2012. By 2014, boosted by an agreement with now-closed Penrhyn Quarry Railway and a substantial donation from a sponsor, Gwynedd was on its way back to steam. With the chassis overhauled and a new firebox fitted to the boiler at Mervyn Mays’ workshop at Yaxham, Norfolk, a fire was lit in Gwynedd’s boiler on September 13, 2016.
It was officially relaunched back into service on April 29 last year carrying Penrhyn slate quarry black with blue and red lining, surprisingly for the first time in preservation.
Authentic slate wagons
The 1½-mile long Fen Railway at Bressingham (originally the Nursery Railway)
