Narrow Gauge Railways In North Caernarvonshire - Volume two The Penrhyn Quarry Railways
Boyd focuses his forth book on one of the largest narrow gauge railway complexes in Wales - The Penrhyn Quarry.
Books, Wales
The forth of his series of volumes on the narrow gauge railways of North Wales and the second to cover North Caernarvonshire. Boyd focuses exclusivly on one railways system - the Penrhyn Quarry. This included the lines on the faces in the quarry and the mainline down to Port Penrhyn as well as the rolling stock, buildings and ships used to transport the slate. extensively explored the region, diligently recording every detail. W
Volume 2: The Penrhyn Quarry Railways
The author writes:
“So to the penultimate and most formidable volume of a series begun about forty years ago in youthful enthusiasm, and the desire to expose what I then thought was - and do still - a most neglected subject. In those times I was endured by others as a non-conformist, for in my native Cheshire the standard-gauge railway strode from border to border and upon it rode the products of Crewe, Gorton, Derby and Horwich .. more than sufficient for others to dote upon. When at 13 years my headmaster exposed us (literally) to a week climbing in Snowdonia and I experienced the Welsh Highland and Festiniog, my mind was made up: before World War II had started my notebooks were full of all that might be learned of that district, and it was preciously small! It was to be the opportunities offered by His Majesty in the next few years which would enrich my field notes, and base the foundations for this series.
The canvas of these last two books is widespread; if I had a personal choice it would be for the area so rich in colourful subjects even though at that time my limited opportunities had found the Welsh Highland almost dead, the Festiniog geriatric, the Glyn Valley defunct, the Corris and Talyllyn each running an uncertain service but yet - and what important exceptions these were! - both Penrhyn and Dinorwic railways were operating daily and their quarries were oases of railway wonderment.
Now almost everything has gone. Well-meant but mostly iconoclast are the tourist railway substitutes, and it is beyond the brief of Marchwiel Holdings at Penrhyn or the Central Electricity Board at Dinorwic (to name the two most important places around which Volumes 2 and 3 are written) to preserve any semblance of the two centuries of Welsh industrial history which was made there. Something of the feeling of a crusader who comes to the end of his mission with a mixture of relief and regret is almost unavoidable for one who has watched this pattern of a bygone age of transport disappear, and knows how limited is his skill to re-create it!”
Contents
- Foreword
- Author's Note
- Preface
- Acknowledgement – Sources – Part 5 The Penrhyn Quarry Railways 1719 on – REfernces
- Index to Text
- Index to Drawing and Maps
Review
Narrow Gauge Railways in North Caernarvonshire: Volume Two: The Penrhyn Quarry Railways by James I. C. Boyd is the most comprehensive and well-written history of the narrow gauge railways of the Penrhyn Quarry Railways in North Wales. The book goes into great detail of the history of the quaryy and how the railway was built including costs, proposals and drawing on may years of talking to the workers in the quarry and on the railways.
For the modeller wanting to recapture this historic industrial railway, this book is a veritable gold mine of information. It includes maps, photograps and drawing including proposed rolling stock by Spooner. Many classes of locomotives worked at Penrhyn, some built for the quarry and opther purchased second hand later and there are kits available for these models. There are also ready to run 009 scale locomotives available such as the Bachmann Mainline Hunslet Blanche and the diminutive quarry Hunslet Nesta.