Glyn Valley tramway 0-4-2 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class Dennis (Locobase 20816)

Data from "The Glyn Valley Tramway", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XXVIII [28] (15 November 1922), p. 328-329; "and reproduced drawings from "Glynn Valley Tramway", Model Railway News, June 1967", supplied by "Annie", Sun Sep 02, 2012 12:42 pm on the Gardenrails forum at []. See also "Tramway History" on the Glyn Valley Tramway website at [], last accessed 22 November 2020; and H Fayle, "The Glyn Valley Tramway", Railway Magazine, Volume 11 (1902), pp 322-326. Works numbers were 2969-2970 (for Sir Theodore and Dennis, respectively) in 1889 and 3500 in 1892.

Ceirog Granite Company began mining stone quarries up the Glyn Valley. A horse-drawn tramway built by the Ellesmere & Glyn Valley Railway was opened in 1870 to bring granite down to the Shropshire Union Canal some 8 3/4 miles (14.1 km) away. Apparently satisfactory for more than a decade, the line was rebuilt for steam locomotive use in 1888.

Beyer, Peacock delivered the first three engines on the tramway. Glyn arrived four years later with a frame lengthened by a foot to accommodate more coal. In a typical concession to the presence of a public road next to the tram tracks, top-hinged iron panels hid all of the running gear. Even more unusually, slab-sided plating wrapped around the boiler. Still more rarely, butterfly valves in the cylinders could be opened to divert exhaust steam to the side tanks. MRN's 1967 report noted the water in the tanks would prove too hot to use. Seldom used, the valves remained in place until removed in 1925-1929.

In the first three years, the trio pulled only granite trains on the 50 lb/yard (25 kg/metre) rails. But local demand for passenger service led to both kinds of train began running in 1891. A typical schedule showed goods trains (2 per day) and mixed trains of passenger and freight vehicles (4 per day). In addition to passengers and granite, offers the Tramway History entry on the GVT website, the tramway moved "Slate, flannel, coal, timber, the mails--even gunpowder for the quarries and live fish in milk churns." All trains ran at top speeds of 10 mph (16 kph).

A metre-gauge Baldwin 4-6-0 originally built in World War I for British and allied military railways (Locobase 4985) came to the tramway in 1919.

Attractive as the ride up the Glyn Valley may have been, the tramway simply couldn't compete. GVT's history says "the quarries were closing or turning to road transport. Rival 'buses could take people directly to Oswestry or Llangollen at twice the speed of the train and without the need for a change in Chirk" More frustrating than that "One operator kept his 'bus just ahead of the GVT trains, collecting all the fares and passengers just before the train appeared around the bend."

Passenger service ended in 1933 and the last train, made up of Sir Theodore and a brake van, ran on 6 July 1935.