Volk's Electric Railway - A taster!

Having a couple of hours to kill in Brighton this week I went looking for a historic little railway that runs along the seafront.

Volk's Electric Railway car No.9

The Volk's Electric Railway was the brainchild of one Magnus Volk, the son of a German clockmaker born in Brighton. An inventor and engineer, he was the first person in Brighton to equip his house with electric light and he went on to win the contract to provide the Royal Pavilion with the same.

In August 1883 he opened an electric railway running from the Aquarium to the Chain Pier. The line was later extended considerably and even though it was shortened in 1990 it still runs for over a mile!

I'm certainly planning to revisit this, the world's oldest operating electric railway, in the near future…

Remember, remember, the 5th of November…

With this Wednesday being 'Guy Fawkes Night' I thought I'd post a photo of something I spotted at Llanuwchllyn station on the Bala Lake Railway a couple of months ago.

Gunpowder Wagon at Llanuwchllyn station on the Bala Lake Railway, 15/8/14

This 2ft gauge gunpowder wagon was originally used for transporting explosives around the Oakeley Quarry in Blaenau Ffestiniog when blasting for slate and had arrived from the Llanberis Lake Railway for restoration a few months earlier.

Whilst the metalwork needs some attention, the interior protective wooden panelling (presumably used to prevent the quarrymen's hob-nailed boots from striking sparks) is to be completely replaced by the BLR's Carriage and Wagon Department.

Despite constant disputes over the rates for slate shipment the Oakley Quarry sent slate over the Ffestiniog Railway until the railway closed in August 1946 but also had a connection to the London & North Western Railway exchange yard in Blaenau Ffestiniog and large tonnages of slate were sent out via this connection until the closure of the quarry in 1970.

A contrast at Blaenau Ffestiniog

Travelling along the North Wales coast back in June I just had time for a quick trip down the branch line from Llandudno Junction to Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Arriva Trains Wales liveried 150257 stands at Blaenau Festiniog, 30/6/14

Recently repainted Arriva Trains Wales 150257 was shuttling up an down the branch, taking an hour to cover the 27 mile journey before pausing for 25 minutes to make a connection with Ffestiniog Railway services.

Ffestiniog Railway 0-4-4-0T Double fairlie DAFYDD LLOYD GEORGE/DAVID LLOYD GEORGE arrives at Blaenau Festiniog, 30/6/14

Double Fairlie 0-4-4-0T DAVID LLOYD GEORGE/DAFYDD LLOYD GEORGE arrived with the 13.35 service from Porthmadog and even in its temporary plain grey livery (having only returned to service following overhaul the previous month) still looked fantastic and had no problems handling a heavily loaded ten coach train.

So which is older? The 1ft 11½in gauge, coal-fired steam locomotive working on the world's oldest narrow gauge railway or the shiny diesel multiple unit that covers hundreds of miles every day on the national network?

That's right, 150257 is older, built by British Rail Engineering Limited, York in 1987 whilst DAVID LLOYD GEORGE/DAFYDD LLOYD GEORGE was built at the Ffestiniog Railway's Boston Lodge Works in 1992.

Coincidences…

When I first encountered the 0-4-0VBT locomotives built by De Winton of Carnarvon I was immediately struck by how 'cobbled together' they looked, seeming to be part locomotive, part coffee-pot!
Now this turns out to be a bit of a coincidence strewn entry because the family of a close friend of mine always refer to anything that looks cobbled together as being 'George Henry'd' after an ancestor who was quite adept at what I would call 'the art of bodging' so during my recent visit to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum I just had to take a photograph of a De Winton locomotive named 'GEORGE HENRY' that was used in the Slate Quarries at Penrhyn.

De Winton 0-4-0VBT GEORGE HENRY, NGRM, 16/8/13

I showed the photo to my friend and after much rummaging in cupboards she produced the photo below, coincidentally showing the subjects of my last post DOWIE and TOMMY with none other than (her grandfather) George Henry himself on the footplate!

DOWIE, TOMMY and George Henry Henson, date unknown
Photo courtesy of the Henson family archive.

It turns out that George Henry Henson was one of a number of family members that worked either in the quarry at Crich or on George Stephenson's mineral railway and along with his brother, Harold, was consulted during the writing of the book 'The Crich Mineral Railways' published in 1971 that first sparked my interest in the line.

What a small world we live in…

Derbyshire railway history… In Wales!

This week I finally got to pay my first visit to the Talyllyn Railway, and amazingly (given my  track record where visits to Wales are concerned) in glorious weather!

Whilst waiting for No.1 'TALYLLYN' to arrive with our train Joy and I had a wander around the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum at Tywyn Wharf and came across these…

HODDER, TOMMY & DOWIE nameplates, NGRM, 16/8/13

HODDER, TOMMY and DOWIE, nameplates from three steam locomotives that once worked a line very close to where I grew up (albeit well before my time!)

The line in question was (unusually for the UK) a metre gauge concern that carried limestone from Cliff Quarry in Crich, Derbyshire (now home to the Crich Tramway Village) down to lime kilns by the side of the North Midland Railway line at Ambergate, constructed by none other than George Stephenson, renowned as the 'Father of Railways' and was opened in 1841 using a mixture of self-acting inclines and horses to move the wagons.

DOWIE was the first steam locomotive to arrive in 1893 being constructed by Markham and Co. Ltd. of Chesterfield at a cost of £500. A De Winton & Co. 'coffee-pot' purchased from an unknown source in 1899 became the first of two locomotives to be named TOMMY but wasn't a huge success, eventually being replaced by a secondhand locomotive identical to DOWIE built in 1889 by Oliver & Co. Ltd. of Chesterfield (who later changed their name to Markham and Co.)

HODDER (a Peckett dating from 1924) was the fourth and final steam locomotive bought for the line in 1934 from William Twigg, an engineering dealer at Matlock. A much larger locomotive than DOWIE and TOMMY, HODDER had to be cut-down in size but even with a severely truncated chimney it still only cleared the village tunnel roof by a couple of inches.

Cliff Quarry (although reopened at a later date in a limited capacity) and the railway closed in May 1957 without ceremony and as far as I am aware none of the steam locomotives survive.