THE completionofauniqueprojectto restore an unusualVictorian method of watering steam locomotives has won a major national award for the Talyllyn Railway.
When the railway opened to Abergynolwyn and Nant Gwernol in 1865, its original engine shed was at Tŷ Dŵr, with the water supplied by a long, fixed overhead trough supported on slate columns, and fed by an adjacent stream. The outer end had a removable trough that reached across to the locomotive tank filler.
Following the line’s closure and subsequent revival by preservationists led by the late Tom Rolt in 1951, it was initially believed that services would never operate beyond Abergynolwyn. Accordingly, the watering point fell out of use in the early 1950s and the slate from the columns was retrieved and used for other purposes.
When a project to rebuild this unique feature began in 2019, there was all but no trace of the original structure surviving.
The reconstruction was more complex in that the alignment of the railway
