Authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1865 and thus the first narrow gauge railway designed for steam from its inception, the Talyllyn Railway Company became another notable ‘first’ 86 years later when it became the World’s First Preserved Railway. Still in operation by the original Talyllyn Railway Company and supported by the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society, the original two Fletcher Jenningsbuilt locomotives and small fleet of fourwheeled carriages (bolstered by additional locomotives and rolling stock from other lines or newly built) continue to make their way on the 2ft 3in gauge line from Tywyn, on the Cambrian coast, along the Fathew valley up to Abergynolwyn, the original passenger terminus. Since 1976 the passenger service has gone beyond on the ‘mineral extension’ to Nant Gwernol from where the first of several self-acting inclined planes moved slate and other wagons up to the slate quarry of Bryn Eglwys, the reason for the line’s construction.
Slate quarrying had started to develop on a large scale at Bryn Eglwys, nestled in the hillsside-on using small turntables, with the slates then loaded on to standard gauge wagons.
