News

New Vale of Rheidol Railway carriage storage and conservation store completes second phase of £2.2million ‘Wales to the World’ project

Construction of Vale of Rheidol Railway’s new Museum collection and heritage rolling stock protection shed has been completed at its Aberystwyth terminus. Costing £531,000 to build and equip, the state-of-the-art structure can accommodate the equivalent of 36 VoR bogie carriages on its three roads in secure covered accommodation.

Two full length roads, each long enough to accommodate 12 carriages, will house VoR’s two standard seven-carriage service rakes when not in use with additional capacity for further stock storage. The third road incorporates a ‘building within the building’ partitioned from the main element of the shed with an electric sectional door. The equivalent of 10 bogie carriages in length, this storage area has been constructed to house historically important locomotives and stock in a heated and ventilated temperature-controlled environment. The centre road of the building incorporates a pit near the entrance doors to enable maintenance of carriage bogies and a section of reinforced flooring to accommodate lifting jacks.

A 45KW solar panel array on the south facing side of the roof provides power for the air source heating system and lighting within the new building. It will also provide electricity for the station building and shop, the multi-function display and entertainment facility to be developed within the ex-GWR loco shed and feed power back into the national grid. In conjunction with the solar panels already on the roof of the exGWR loco shed which provide power for the works and running shed the entire Vale of Rheidol station at Aberystwyth becomes electrically self-sufficient. The pedestrian path beside the southern wall of the building to directly link Vale of Rheidol Railway’s station with the national network station has also been reinstated, although cannot be brought into use until VoR’s new station building comes into use. Construction of the new building commenced in the latter part of 2019 and was on-target for completion in April 2020 but inevitably became delayed as the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. With the building now complete the track connections to the station and ex-GWR loco shed will be laid upon return to work post COVID and stock moved inside. “This is a massive asset which will provide indoor cover along with maintenance facilities for the carriage fleet and historic rolling stock,” commented VoR General Manager and Chief Engineer, Llyr ap Iolo. “A massive thank you must go to our contractors who carried on through what has been a really tricky time. It is a credit to them that the project remained on track and budget,” commented Vale of Rheidol Railway Chairman, Robert Gambrill. “The whole team responsible for the visit Wales TAD projects have been invaluable in seeing the project through to completion of the second phase. Protection of our historic assets is vital to their long-term survival. The new store will, for the first time, enable us to keep everything protected in dry and weatherproof conditions. Seeing the former Great Western Engine Shed revived and given a new life is the next exciting phase of our plans,” he added. Images taken on 7 October 2020 are attached showing the exterior and interior of the new building.

Welsh Slate’s steam loco finds its forever home

A 123-year-old steam railway locomotive that saw 27 years’ service with Welsh Slate has found its forever home with a narrow-gauge heritage railway in Mid Wales.

The 11-tonne Manning Wardle “Jubilee 1897”, so named to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, has been sold to the Vale of Rheidol Railway at Aberystwyth which had been its foster home for the past two years. Jubilee 1897 initially worked at Cilgwyn slate quarry at Nantlle, hauling waste from the quarry to remote tips near the village of Y Fron. It was sold to Welsh Slate in 1928 when it travelled to Dinas Junction on its

own wheels down the incline and over the Welsh Highland Railway for unloading at Penrhyn from a standard gauge wagon. For a year, she worked at Port Penrhyn at Bangor before moving to be stored at Felin Fawr. After being painted and returned to steam at the end of World War II, she worked on Red Lion Level but was withdrawn from service 10 years later. Her home was then the Narrow-Gauge Railway Museum Trust at Towyn where she was cosmetically restored for display. In 2016, Jubilee 1897 was moved to Felin Fawr where the Penrhyn Quarry Railway project was being developed. The original plan was for her to be a static exhibit but after examination established she was in fundamentally sound condition, agreement was reached that the project would restore her to steam at Coed y Parc workshops. Dismantling commenced in 2017 but four months later the project collapsed, and the Vale of Rheidol Railway offered to accommodate her while the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Trust established a way forward. Her components were relocated to Aberystwyth in 2018. Now, the Vale of Rheidol Railway is her permanent home. Robert Gambrill, chairman of the Vale of Rheidol Railway, said: “We are delighted to have secured the sale from Welsh Slate of this significant addition to our roster and can assure Welsh Slate she will have a happy home with us. “Manning Wardle is a locomotive builder not previously represented within our collection so we jumped at the chance to secure an example of this manufacturer .Our thanks go to the team at Welsh Slate for working with us to secure the future of this historic Welsh locomotive. We are planning to restore Jubilee 1897 to steam by 2023, allowing the public to be see her again working for the first time since the 1950s.” Welsh Slate managing director Mark Hodgkinson said: “The Jubilee 1897 will always be a part of our history and we’re only glad she has found such an appreciative permanent home.”