‘IRISH MAIL’.

Hunslet Engine Company, Leeds, Works Number 823, 0-4-0 Saddle Tank Locomotive.

Formerly used at Dinorwic Slate Quarries, Llanberis, North Wales.

Irish Mail was built in 1903 by the Hunslet Engine Company for Dinorwic Slate Quarries as one of the 13-strong, ‘Alice’ class of Quarry Hunslets carrying works number 823. This class of engine is fitted with 7inch x 10inch cylinders and the boiler has a working pressure of 140psi.

The Hunslet Engine Company was established in 1864 and the Company built its first narrow gauge locomotive for the slate industry in 1870. The Company went on to build dozens of small steam locomotives for the numerous quarries in North Wales.

Dinorwic Slate Quarry comprised of a series of terraces up the mountainside which were linked by rope-worked inclines. Each terrace had its own railway, most with a steam locomotive and some with more than one. Locomotives would tend to spend a long time on one level and would generally only move if they required a major overhaul in the workshops at the base of the Quarry and may then go back into service on a different level. The Quarry was one of the largest slate quarries in the world and in its heyday, at the end of the 19th Century, employed over 3,000 people.

 

Irish Mail at Threlkeld Quarrying Mining Museum July 2017.
Photograph courtesy of Matt Ditch

The locomotive was originally called No. 6 and was later named Irish Mail (named after a racehorse like many of the other locomotives at the Quarry). It was unusual for a Dinorwic Quarry locomotive in carrying a full cab whereas the other locomotives in the class only had waist-high side and rear sheets to their footplates. It is believed the locomotive was ordered with a cab as it was to work on the Lernion level, one of the highest in the Quarry, where there were no headroom restrictions. Although the cab was later removed, Irish Mail remained distinctive in that the lower parts to its cab had right-angled front corners whereas on the other locomotives this corner was rounded.

The locomotive finished its working life on Australia level, one of the higher and larger levels in the Quarry, in 1959 at which point it was taken down to the Gilfach Ddu workshops. The Quarry operations ran-down over a long period and it closed down in 1969 with the last steam locomotive finishing only a few years earlier. On closure of the Quarry, there was an auction of its assets and the remains of the locomotive were purchased at the auction in December 1969 by the members of the West Lancashire Light Railway Group and moved in blizzard conditions to the West Lancashire Light Railway at Hesketh Bank.

Irish Mail taking a train of waste slate to the tips on Australia level at Dinorwic Quarry in the early 1950s. Photograph courtesy of the late Ivo Peters.

Irish Mail at Rhiw Goch on the Ffestiniog Railway at the Hunslet 125 event in June 2018.

The purchase only included the rolling chassis, lower cab, and saddle tank.  After considering several options, the Group purchased the remains of Alice (Hunslet Works Number 780 of 1902) to obtain a suitable boiler.  Alice had been abandoned on the Australia level high in the quarry and the remains had no wheels fitted.  Combined with lack of rails on part of one of the two inclines that had to be descended, this made for a long and challenging recovery process which took much of the summer and autumn of 1972. Interestingly, this boiler has studs on the firebox wrapper to support the brake column. Locomotives built without cabs had a free-standing brake column. This may well indicate that the boiler originated on Irish Mail before passing to Alice.

Restoration of Irish Mail to working order included the fitting of a new inner firebox, re-machining the cylinder valve faces and regauging to 2foot from the Dinorwic gauge of 1foot 10¾inches by fitting new tyres. The locomotive was restored to steam in April 1980 and worked that year cabless. The full cab was restored the following year.

The original members of the Group established the West Lancashire Locomotive Trust that now owns Irish Mail and it is currently operational at the West Lancashire Light Railway at Hesketh Bank.  Irish Mail has been restored to ‘as delivered’ condition with a full cab and lined ‘Midland Railway’ livery.

Irish Mail at Statfold Barn Railway, March 2006.

Irish Mail in front of the former offices of the Hunslet Engine Company in Leeds in July 2015.

Since restoration, Irish Mail has made visits to many other lines and venues including:

  • Llanberis Lake Railway
  • Ffestiniog Railway
  • Bala Lake Railway
  • Leadhills & Wanlockhead Railway
  • Threlkeld Quarrying and Mining Museum
  • Hunslet Factory Yard in Leeds for the Middleton Railway’s Hunslet 150 Event
  • Statfold Barn Railway
  • Welsh Highland Heritage Railway
  • Llangollen Railway, on a temporary line in the yard at Carrog station.
  • The Steam Festival in Maldegem Belgium
  • Leighton Buzzard Railway

For a full list of locations our locomotives have visited, please visit our Links page. 

It should be noted that in recent years, the spellings of many Welsh place names have changed. Dinorwic is now written Dinorwig. However, it was felt that the historic name of the Quarry was more relevant to the story of Irish Mail.