'Russell' joins the 150th Party!

After the announcement that the Ffestiniog Railway’s locomotive, ‘Prince’, will be a special guest at the Talyllyn Railway’s 150th Party celebrations in July, the railway is delighted to announce a second guest locomotive will be present. This will be the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway’s locomotive ‘Russell’.

‘Russell’s’ visit is especially significant as it has a place Talyllyn history. It was built by Hunslet for the Portmadoc, Beddgelert & South Snowdon Railway Company in 1906, which became part of the Welsh Highland Railway in 1922. In 1942 it was requisitioned and worked at an opencast ironstone site in Oxfordshire. After the war it was sold to the Norden Clay Mines at Corfe, Dorset, but was laid up out of service in 1953.



The Birmingham Locomotive Society then purchased it for £70 and transferred it to the Talyllyn railway at Tywyn. It remained a static exhibit at Wharf station until April 1965 when it was moved to Kinnerley. After a number of further moves it finally came back to Porthmadog and the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway in 1970. ‘Russell’ will be returning to Tywyn Wharf fifty years after it left.



During the 150th Party gala, which will be held between Friday 3 and Sunday 5 July 2015, two temporary lengths of track are being laid at Tywyn Wharf to allow both locomotives to be in steam together. This will also enable them to be photographed with the Talyllyn’s own No.1 ‘Talyllyn’ and No.2 ‘Dolgoch’, as well as our other locomotives, thus forming a unique line-up of narrow-gauge locomotive history. Throughout the gala there will be various photo-opportunities at Wharf along with other attractions, including the annual Garden Railway Weekend.

Jane Garvey, Chairman of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society, comments: ‘We wanted to do something special to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the opening of the railway. To have two such historical locomotives present for the weekend along with our own locomotive fleet is truly historic, and something we hope will be remembered for a long time. We are also very grateful to our friends at both the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway and the Ffestiniog Railway for making this possible.’
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Before the July event the Railway will holding ‘The Quarryman Experience’ gala week-end between 2 and 4 May 2015.

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