WELSHPOOL & Llanfair Light Railway’s (WLLR) May 20-22 ‘Beyer Bash’ marked the 120th anniversary of its Beyer, Peacock 0-6-0Ts No. 822 The Earl and No. 823 The Countess, with a display of visiting locomotives built at Beyer, Peacock’s Gorton works.
WLLR’s out of ticket 2ft 6in gauge resident No. 823 The Countess was outside the shed at Raven Square, accompanied by Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways’ 2ft gauge 0-4-0+0-4-0 Garratt K1 and Isle of Man Steam Railway’s 3ft gauge 2-4-0T No. 8 Fenella static on temporary lengths of track.
Standard gauge 1885-built steam tram No. 47 (known as ‘John Bull’) from Crich Tramway Village was on a transporter trailer and 0-4-0ST 1827/1879 from the Foxfield Railway periodically steamed back and forth on a length of standard gauge track.
Operationally, No. 822 The Earl primarily worked shuttles between Raven Square and the newly reinstated loop at Sylfaen which now incorporates an island platform. All-line trains were mostly handled by U-class 0-6-2T No. 2 Zillertal (on-hire from Austria’s Zillertalbahn), and 1979-built ex-Taiwan Sugar Corporation Diema diesel No. 17.
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