Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway 0-6-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class The Countess (Locobase 13803)

Data from "Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway," Railway Magazine, Volume 13, (July 1903), p. 64-68. See also the Railroad Glory Days website article on the WLLR at [], last accessed 31 January 2012. Works numbers were 3496-3497 in 1902.

"The Earl" and "The Countess" were named for the Earl of Powys and his Countess. The 9-mile (14.5 km) line from Welshpool to Llanfair began construction in May 1901 and completed 9 months later in February 1902. Its first two miles climbed on the average of 150 ft/mile (2.8%).

The RGD summary of the WLLR is hard to beat. "This is rural country, not mountainous like farther west. The gently rolling landscape is dotted with small farms and pasture land. It was in fact agriculture that brought the railway here. Unlike all the other Welsh narrow gauges I visited, the W&L was built not for mining, but to haul agricultural goods and perhaps a few rural citizens to and from the small market town of Welshpool or to the standard gauge connection there with the Cambrian Railways."

When the Great Western Railway took over operation of the W & LLR, God's Wonderful Railway renumbered the 1 & 2 as 822-823.