PENRHYN Quarry – the largest slate quarry in the world come the end of the 19th century, boasting a pit a mile long and 1200ft deep.With slate extraction at Penrhyn dating as far back as 1570, and it still being the largest slate quarry in Britain, it’s no surprise it is now an integral part of the newest British UNESCOWorld Heritage Site, the Slate Landscape of NorthWestWales.
The quarry’s long affair with railways begun in 1793 when William Jessop, a civil engineer best known for his work with canals and harbours, suggested that its owners ought to build a tramway to convey slate straight to Port Penrhyn.
Construction started on September 2, 1800, at a cost of £170,000; the first slate train ran on the Penrhyn Railroad on June 25, 1801. The railroad was horse-drawn on the up journey and gravity worked on the down – with three balanced inclines along the way.
Come 1868, Charles Easton Spooner, the man responsible for bringing steam traction to the Ffestiniog Railway and
