Slate Railway to Moel Fferna

Slate railway to Moel Fferna A history of the Dyfrdwy Tramway

by James Hilton

First published 2018

The author wishes to thank his friends and family for their love and support, and in particular Steve Milner for his never ending encouragement, without whom this book may never got beyond my note pad.

Printed in the UK by _______

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Please note, the following pages are a work of fiction. Some aspects of this story are based on the real Deeside Tramway in North Wales, about which more can be learnt from ‘Industrial Tramways of the Vale of Llangollen’ by John Thomas and David Southern, published by the Oakwood Press ISBN 978-0853617273.

Contents An Introduction

4

Map of the route

6

Expansion and Prosperity

7

New traffic

9

Last gasp

14

Closure

16

Reprieve?

18

Appendix 1 - Gauge

21

Appendix 2 - Locomotives

22

Appendix 3 - Rolling Stock

29

An Introduction A slab quarry was opened at a site above the village of Glyndyfrdwy and a slate cutting mill established at Nant-yPandy in the early 19th century by the Dyfrdwy Slate Company. Cut slab was transported to the mill by horse and cart along a track which was barely usable even in the summer, carts often getting stuck in the thick mud. The track down from the mill to the main road was little better despite stone paving, the rate of breakages was high and as demand increased this means of transport proved to be severely lacking and the owners, looking to improve the situation, decided upon a tram road.

Artists impression of the slab mill at Nant-y-Pandy, with iron sheathed timber rail heading up the slope and later cast iron pointwork.

The exact opening date of the Dyfrdwy Tramway is unknown, but it is believed to be during the mid 19th century. The original stretch joining the slab quarry to mill was laid using wooden rails protected with iron sheaths*1. Slabs were brought down to the mill by gravity, and empty slab wagons returned once a day by a horse rented from a local farmer to the quarry after lunch. This arrangement, using gravity and horse working, was retained until after the Great War and it is believed this original section of tramway retained it’s wooden rails until locomotive haulage was introduced in 1926 when the line was upgraded in support of the development of forestry plantations above Nant-y-Pandy. *1 This type of construction at this date is considered unusual, as iron rails were already widely used elsewhere, but the lower initial cost and readily available supply of timber most probably account for what could otherwise be seen as a short sighted decision.

Map of the route

Notes: Map shows the full extent of the route including later modifications including switch backs at Moel-Fferna.

The layout of the plantation tramway is indicative only, as no plans were made, and little is now visible on the ground. 

Expansion and Prosperity The arrival of the Great Western in the valley in 1865 saw the tramway extended north from the original roadside wharf above the A5 to a siding close to the local station of Glyndyfrdwy. This section was laid with more conventional iron rails and saw the finished slate from the mill descend through gravity, controlled by a riding brakeman, to an incline that dropped the final 120 metres down to the railway, and used local horses to return empties to the mill, as per the original tramway.

Artists impression of the GWR served wharf at Glyndyfrdwy. Note the original slate wagon chassis modified with a two plank body carrying fuel for the diesel engine at the later Moel-Fferna quarry, with slate carrying wagons further up the quay.

Rare photograph taken in 1960 after the line had closed showing the base of the incline and the gates that separated the wharf from the surrounding fields.

Geological exploration in the period led to the development of the north side of Moel Fferna to take advantage of the formation of Silurian slate. A quarry, largely underground was established which saw the tramway extended again in 1880.

This time a second incline was introduced just above the slab quarry to gain around 65 metres and allow a more gentle gradient for the tramway. This section, just over half a mile, was worked independently of the lower sections, although in

a similar manner, with loaded wagons descending under gravity and horses used to return empty wagons to the quarry. Whereas the original section was single-track throughout, this upper section included a passing loop so it is assumed that wagons were returned more frequently, with horses stabled overnight for this purpose at the quarry. The final ascent into Moel Fferna was a 70 metre table incline, allowing tramways to be established at different levels serving various adits and was initially operated using a water balance arrangement.

The company was often at the forefront of technology. The slate mill moved from water to steam power towards the end of the 19th century and was an early adopter of diamond coated cutting blades. Similarly, at the quarry itself steam was replaced by a gas engine in 1912 and a diesel engine in the 1930s, these providing power to a new winch for the table incline and to mechanise inclines and tools used under the surface.

New traďŹƒc The Forestry Commissions’s origins are in the Great War with the difficulty the country had faced in meeting the demands on timber supply. The Forestry Act of 1919 created the Forestry Commission, giving it the responsibility for woodland in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, rebuilding and maintaining a strategic timber reserve. Given the size of the challenge the Commission were given a good deal of freedom to acquire and plant land. The Dee Valley,

with already mature privately owned plantations saw a number of these acquired and expanded, and in 1926 the forest above Nant-y-Pandy was purchased for further development in the form of a coniferous plantation.

To develop this plantation, which suffered from difficult access, it was considered advantageous to use the existing slate tramway to move materials from the roadside wharf at the top of the lower incline to the construction and planting areas. It was this developing traffic that led to investment to upgrade the privately owned tramway and the replacement of the last of the iron sheathed wooden rails above the slate mill with steel flat bottom rail spiked to wooden sleepers. A junction on this section below the slab quarry took the upgraded tramway into the plantation, which ended with a series of switchbacks to climb the east side of Moel Fferna.

As with other timber tramways, the Forestry Commission introduced an internal combustion locomotive tractor. Due to the unusual gauge this was sourced from Hunslet *2, and is believed to have been of similar design to that later supplied to the Deptford Supply Depot. It’s arrival was welcome and found extensive use on construction trains in conjunction with establishing the plantations. These saw the transport of tools and saplings in a small number of standard Robert Hudson skips and flat wagons. During this period, although the date has not been able to be confirmed, a 18” gauge Andrew Barclay steam locomotive was introduced. *2 Motor Rail’s Simplex design was at this stage only available in gauges of

2’ and wider due to the layout of the transmission, hence why the selection of Hunslet.

The Andrew Barclay proved a useful and powerful addition to the Forestry Commission, and was also utilised on occasion by the quarry company for delivering supplies up the line without requiring horses.

As planting progressed extensive use was made of temporary ‘Jubilee’ track with very little earthworks or foundations allowing the tramway to be quickly and easily relaid with branches reaching new areas as planting proceeded, however this has meant the footprint of this part of the tramway has very much disappeared into the forest floor under years of pine needles, felling and reforestation.

With the Second World War came an increase in demand for pit props to support our coal industry which saw the line repurposed to extract timber from the more mature, previously privately-owned plantation. Initially it is believed timber bolsters were created from old slate wagons, but later

purpose built wagons were sourced and used to transport this valuable resource to the roadside wharf. The more powerful Andrew Barclay steam locomotive was very much at home with this heavier work, and it’s compact nature meant it could reach all but the most remote areas of the plantation.

Despite a lack of photographic evidence it is believed from local accounts that it worked as late as 1946.

Following the war the Hunslet tractor was moved on by the Commission but saw little use elsewhere due to it’s unusual 18” gauge. It was considered for use at Eaton Hall in the mid 1940s but that came too late for the line which closed in 1946. Although there is no record, it is believed to have been sold on to a scrap dealer in the Chester area in the early 1950s and assumed to have been cut up.

Artists impression of the local ‘Forestry Tractor’ outside the make shift shed.

After the departure of the Hunslet, and with the Andrew Barclay worn out the locals resorted to horses for moving their tools and materials around in a couple of trucks put together from old slate tramway wagons including a

distinctive tool van that some observers described as a ‘shed on wheels’. It should come as no surprise the loss of their Hunslet was lamented, and so a local contraption was cobbled together from another old slate wagon chassis and parts of an old road tractor. Details of this creation are thin on the ground, as it had been scrapped by the time preservationists visited the line in 1962, however observers describe an arrangement not dissimilar to a Lister auto truck, but with just a make shift cab supported on 3 pillars over the driver’s seat. Despite it’s utilitarian purpose they recall it was kept in good condition and even featured pale grey lining on it’s burgundy cab sides.

The line in later years showing the rural nature of the tramway.

During the early 1950s the plantations had become more established and the local Forestry Commission purchased a Land Rover which spelt the end of the forest tramway. The track was left in situ, and the home-grown locomotive slept in it’s make shift shed for a time (a repurposed old stone barn hidden out of sight and forgotten in the forest), whilst nature reclaimed it’s own coating the line in a blanket of pine needles over the years.

Last gasp Whilst the slab quarry was closed before the second world war, the plantations proved important during the war years which saw the export of timber from the valley steadily increase. Slate traffic continued although output was much reduced during this period.

By the 1950s the company were beginning to lose out to cheaper roofing slate imported from China whilst struggling to retain a skilled workforce. The blue slate was of not as good quality as that extracted from the quarries around Blanau Ffestioniog, hence the company were competing at the lower end of the market. With rising labour costs it looked at ways of increasing output and improving efficiency.

In a heroic last effort, the company modernised the quarry replacing the outdated diesel engine and compressor with an electric supply, more modern compressed air tools and winches and replacing the horses with narrow gauge locomotive tractors to allow an increase in output. The owners, impressed by the performance of the Forestry

Commissions Hunslet during the war years, looked to source another 18� example, but the cost of re-gauging a secondhand Hudson Hunslet in good condition (along with the persuasive nature of the Motor Rail sales man) saw them instead opt for the purchase of a brand new 18� gauge Simplex 40S.

The Motor Rail Simplex 40S for a time breathed fresh life into the upper reaches of the tramway, seen here at the sidings at the old slab quarry in the late 1950s.

The exposed location and lack of maintenance during the war had meant that the second incline above the old slab quarry was in need of extensive repair and renewal to handle the projected increased traffic. Instead a series of three switchbacks were introduced further up the valley, allowing the use of locomotive tractor on the whole length of the line.

The gradient must still have been fierce, and a modified skip wagon with additional braking was often marshalled next to the locomotive, which was always on the downhill end of the train. The 40S was capable of pushing up to three wagons up to the quarry, yet only two loaded slab or slate wagons

downhill. These operational constraints meant the locomotive was used hard, and records show regular spares were purchased from Motor Rail in Bedford until the end of the tramway.

This regeneration saw some small returns with increased output in 1958 and 59 reversing the decline of the previous decade, however it was not to be and the quarry company decided to wind up operations in 1960, and hence ending almost 100 years of operation.

Closure With closure came uncertainty, and the wet summer of 1960 saw the line soon became swamped in a sea of grass. As the company initially sold off assets from the quarry and mill, using the now defunct and overgrown tramway for moving some of the heavier items, it felt as if the line was not dead, just sleeping. However, this ‘Indian summer’ was not to last and as no longer required, the Simplex was sold in 1962, sparking the interest of preservationists who managed to hence save a number of items of rolling stock. The track on the upper extension was in reasonable condition and the rail was sold at much below scrap value to the pioneering Talyllyn railway. The rest of the line was lifted during the winter and by the summer of 1963 the sheep had returned to the line, farmers using the old tramway as a convenient access route between pastures.

A section of the former tramway route above the mill, taken in 1980. The embankment can still clearly be discerned. The curious post on the right appears to have been a gate post for one of the many gates the line originally possessed where it crossed field boundaries and the open grazing areas of the higher ground.

Where once the sound of iron wheels rattling over rail joints broke the silence of the Berywn mountains, now only the sheep, grouse and Red Kites witnessed the remote beauty of the upper reaches of the tramway.

Reprieve?

After so many years sleeping many of the residents had long forgotten their own little part of narrow gauge heritage in North Wales but with increasing interest in recycling and sustainability the housing boom of 1996 brought some unexpected but exciting news to the valley. A speculative extraction of some of the old slate waste from the slab quarry had shown it to be of excellent quality for re-use in aggregate for general construction in the building trade.

Moel-Fferna’s proximity to Cheshire made it an attractive proposition but getting the material out from the old quarry to the A5 would prove problematic and so as before the tramway provided the solution.

During 1996 new rails were laid from the roadside wharf above the A5 up to the slab quarry. This section, devoid of inclines was in reasonably good condition in terms of foundation and drainage, the trackbed was generally intact although a small bridge above Nant-y-Pandy was renewed with steel girders supporting the new rails. The gauge remained 18” and utilised a hired Alan Keef K40 locomotive and second hand ex-mining ‘skip’ wagons.

The fledgling operation limped on through 1997, although infrequently enough to allow weeds and rust to accumulate causing problems for descending loaded trains and limited them to just 3 wagons *3. A 20ft container was placed on the wharf with a simple kick back siding serving a single line laid into the newly formed ‘shed’.

With trains once again running the prospect of returning some of the line’s original rolling stock sparked the interest of a small group of preservationists whom acquired permission from the company to erect a storage shed at the roadside wharf behind the container. A number of items of stock were returned to the line from where they had been preserved in 1962 and a small display was opened on summer Sunday’s in 1998, advertised at the recently reopened Glyndyfrdwy Station on the Llangollen Railway.

In 2005 the preservation society acquired it’s first motive power, a former Seven Trent Water Motor Rail G-series which has been based at Cadeby. This literally drove the restoration of a number of the historic items to working order, allowing them to operate demonstration trains at weekends once agreed with the company. *3 The wagons were modified soon after arrival to incorporate a pin down brake, although loaded trains were still limited to just three wagons.

The Motor Rail G-series was a real boom to the preservation society allowing it to begin to restore a number of items of rolling stock, saved when the original tramway closed, to working order.

The housing market crash of 2008 brought an end to the slate waste extraction, however the company agreed to leave the track and infrastructure in place allowing the preservation group to continue, taking on maintenance of the Alan Keef loco and the trackwork. Due to the steep gradient of the line it is unlikely that any passenger trains can be operated by the society so it is hoped that the interest of one of the last industrial narrow gauge lines in the United Kingdom, the unique nature of the 18� gauge track and the proximity to the nearby tourist attractions of the Dee Valley can keep the operation viable. For a railway that has continually evolved, and even survived without rails, it is hoped that sight of small industrial narrow gauge working will be a part of the valley for many more years to come. 

Appendix 1 - Gauge

Reprinted from ‘The Narrow Gauge’, report dated August 1992

Following discovery of an old siding at the former slate mill during excavation of a new hydroelectric scheme it is possible to offer some hypothesis on the unusual gauge of the tramway.

The hydro-electric scheme, promoted by Cadwyn Clywd, the local development agency proposes the use of the old upper reservoir from when the mill used water power. As this will require extensive repair and access is restricted, the archaeological survey extended to the intended access route and it was when clearing undergrowth on this section that a section of the iron sheathed wooden rail was uncovered.

Further excavation uncovered a pair of rails, still attached to their stone sleepers.

In the past there has been a little speculation as to the peculiar choice of gauge on the Dyfrdwy tramway, however, as with the 15” gauge line at Churchwater, it appears the final tramway is the result of a local interpretation of the original gauge requirements. The wooden tramway rails are wide, much wider than anticipated, measuring nearly six inches.

They are spaced at a 2ft centre. The original tramway wagons would have been double flanged, but when the extension was built in the 1880s in traditional rail this would have necessitated the change to a single flanged wheel of a more typical design. If you consider the 24” measurement, centre to centre of 6” wide timber ‘rails’, then the new gauge of the iron rails, measured from inside face to inside face would be 18”.

Appendix 2 - Locomotives None of the tramways motive power are ever to though have carried numbers or the markings of their ownership.

However over the years various locomotives are known to have worked the line. This is a collection of as much information as is known about them. The author would welcome any further knowledge, and can be contacted via the publishers.

Hunslet diesel

Built: 1929 Works number: 1980 Arrived: 1929 Departed: 1946 Notes: Similar design later built for Deptford Supply Depot in London.

 

Andrew Barclay 0-4-0t

Built: 1909 Works number: 1912 Arrived: Circa 1930 Departed: Unknown, gone by 1962.

Notes: Non-standard Barclay design, based on 500mm gauge locomotives exported to North Africa. Why the commission selected this design over the Hunslet Waril is not known, although the use of side tanks must have made it a little unstable, they did reduce the length of the engine and placed the weight over the driving wheels for maximum traction. Painted in a mid bronze green. 

Forestry Commission diesel

Built: 1947 Departed: Unknown, gone by 1962.

Notes: No details, dimensions or drawings in existence, believed to have been similar in concept to the Lister auto truck. Pale grey lining on burgundy panels, locally known as ‘Dodger’.

Motor Rail Simplex 40S

Built: 1958 Works number: 22020 Arrived: 1958 Departed: 1962 Notes: Very early example of the 40S model supplied with cast buffer beam weights. In this rare photo the Barclay can be seen in the background, proving that at least in 1958 it was still in existence. Painted in mid green.

Alan Keef K40

Built: 1994 Works number: 48 Arrived: 1996 Departed: N/A Notes: Initially on hire from Alan Keef, thought to have been bought outright sometime in the early ‘noughties. Now in the care of the preservation society but still owned by the quarry company.

Motor Rail G-series

Built: 1976 Works number: SMH 104G063 Arrived: 2005 Departed: N/A Notes: Ex-Severn Trent water. Locomotive initially preserved at Cadeby operating the last train before being re-gauged from 2ft to 18inch gauge at the Moseley Railway Trust (Apedale) for use at Moel Fferna.

Appendix 3 - Rolling Stock Wagons 1-5 were the original slate wagons, with low slung plain axle box castings and 3 plank integrated bodies, on 1ft diameter wheelsets.

An enlargement of an old print, showing one of the original batch of wagons (1-5) with 1ft diameter wheels discarded out of use at the bottom of the lower incline.

A second batch of slate wagons with larger 18" diameter wheel sets and heavier duty dumb buffers were built.

Numbered 6-20.

Wagon 12, as modified with lift off 3 plank body and smaller diameter wheels. When this was modified, the original cast plates were removed.

11-20 were re-bodied with lift off 3 plank 'containers', and also fitted with smaller 1ft diameter wheels. A reasonably large number of these were built to facilitate the slate traffic to local industries avoiding transshipment. 12 and 17 survived into preservation.

Artists impression of wagon 8, which was modified, albeit unsuccessfully to a slab carrier.

By the 1940s, only one wagon from the initial batch was in regular use as a tool wagon (Number 3) and remarkably remained largely unmodified. Number 6 remained largely unmodified, representing the second batch of wagons and was in use for Loco Ash. Number 7 had been rebuilt to transport oil barrels for fuel oil to the quarry and it's diesel engine. Number 9 had been rebuilt into a van by the Forestry Commission and Number 10, rebuilt as a gunpowder wagon survived, although out of use.

Wagon 21 (former Trefor Quarry) was introduced for coal traffic to the stationary steam engine at the mill.

An enlargement from an old print, showing one of the later batch of slate wagons with a non-standard 2 plank ‘container’ resting on one of the modified second batch of wagons fitted with smaller 1ft diameter wheels. Unfortunately no markings can be discerned.

During their operation, the Forestry Commission had sourced a number of timber bolsters from various sources, unusual in 18� gauge, an Orenstein and Koppel pair survive in preservation.

The more recent slate waste extraction operation used a small number of second hand reconditioned ‘skip’ style wagons manufactured by Robert Hudson, a number of which were modified to include brakes to permit more ‘controlled’ descent when loaded from the slab quarry, not wholly relying on the brakes of the locomotive. These have been since modified by removing their skip bodies and replacing with a flat bed to allow a bulk bag to be loaded directly onto the wagon.