List of Talyllyn Railway rolling stock


This is a list of past and present rolling stock used on the Talyllyn Railway, a narrow gauge preserved railway line running for from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. The line was opened in 1866 to carry slate from the quarries at Bryn Eglwys to Tywyn, and was the first narrow gauge railway in Britain authorised by Act of Parliament to carry passengers using steam haulage. Despite severe under-investment, the line remained open, and in 1951 it became the first railway in the world to be preserved as a heritage railway by volunteers.
When first opened, the railway owned two steam locomotives, Talyllyn and Dolgoch, and five carriages, including one brake van. There were no additions to the rolling stock until the line was taken over in 1951. Two ex-Corris Railway locomotives were then purchased from British Railways, and subsequent additions have brought the total up to six steam locomotives, four diesels and twenty-three carriages.

Locomotives

The railway has six steam locomotives for passenger trains and five diesel locomotives that usually haul only works trains. It is unusual for all steam locomotives to be operable at one time, as there is usually at least one locomotive undergoing overhaul.

Steam locomotives

NumberNameImageWheel ArrangementBuilderWorks numberDate builtCurrent status
Railway Series/Thomas & Friends equivalent
Returned to service in 2019 following a ten-yearly overhaul.

Diesel locomotives

Self-propelled engineering plant

Former locomotives

Visiting locomotives

there have only been two visiting locomotives capable of running on the Talyllyn Railway's unusual gauge. These are Motor Rail Simplex diesel No. 5 Alan Meaden and Winson Engineering and Drayton Designs No. 7 Tattoo class design similar to the Talyllyn's No. 4. Both these are locomotives from the Corris Railway.
In July 2015 a gala was held to mark the railway's 150th anniversary, and two gauge locomotives visited the railway: George England and Co. locomotive Prince from the Ffestiniog Railway and Hunslet Engine Company Russell from the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, both in Porthmadog. Two lengths of temporary track were laid at to allow the locomotives to operate over a short distance.
In July 2016, another gala was held, with three visiting locos, all built by Fletcher, Jennings and Co. Together with Talyllyn and Dolgoch, this was an assembly of all five surviving locos in the UK built by this firm. As with the previous gala, temporary track was laid due to the differing gauges. One of the locomotives, Captain Baxter, ran on a short section of standard gauge track. The other two Fletcher Jennings locomotives, William Finlay and Townsend Hook, were static exhibits only and are therefore not listed below. William Finlay remained at Tywyn after the event and is now on display at the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum.

Carriages

The Talyllyn railway has a total of 23 carriages. The first five are the original carriages built for the railway, though they were not provided with numbers until preservation in 1951. After that time, the remaining carriages were built by the railway or acquired from elsewhere. With the exception of ex-Corris carriage No. 17, all the bogie coaches were built for the railway after preservation; the smaller four wheeled coaches are generally older.
All the stock is third class only, unless otherwise stated. Where two figures are given for the number of seats, the larger figure is the maximum number of passengers than can be carried in a heavily loaded train.

Four wheeled carriages

Bogie carriages

Goods wagons

The Talyllyn Railway was primarily constructed for conveying slate. Prior to the beginning of the 20th century, the railway owned over 115 wagons, mainly slate wagons, but also a number of other general and special purpose goods wagons. Some of these survived into the preservation era, and since then a large number of additional wagons have been purchased and built. The following table lists the main types of wagon currently in use:
NumberImageBody typeOriginNotes
1No. 1 Open end doorCorris RailwayA coal wagon, acquired in 1951 from the Corris Railway.
4No. 1 Open side doorCorris RailwayA coal wagon, acquired in 1951 from the Corris Railway.
5, 8, 11, 13, 15, 17No. 2 Open end doorTalyllyn Railway
6, 7, 9Underframe onlyTalyllyn Railway
16No. 2 Open side doorCorris Railway
19Flat wagonThis was converted from the original locomotive No. 5.
20, 21, 22, 23, 24Ballast hopperWinchburgh Shale OilworksFour of the five hoppers were acquired from Winchburgh in 1961; the fifth was built by the Talyllyn in 1983.
28No. 1 Covered vanMinistry of DefenceAcquired from Trecwn Royal Naval Armaments Depot in 2007.
29Tool van
30, 31, 33Bolster wagonFfestiniog RailwayOpen frame wagons used in pairs to carry timber.
32, 34, 35Flat wagonFfestiniog Railway wagon, acquired in 1956, regauged from gauge.
36No. 1 Flat wagon with craneBowaters RailwayAcquired in 1971 and known as the Boflat. This was fitted with a crane in January 2009.
37No. 2 Flat wagon with craneBowaters Railway
40, 41, 42, 43, 50, 52, 53, 54, 55Tipper wagonCefn Coch quarryA set of gauge wagons obtained in 1975.
60, 61, 62Flat wagonMinistry of Defence
70Bogie brake vanMinistry of DefenceKnown as Boadicea, and repainted into green livery in January 2013.
71, 72Bogie flat wagonMinistry of Defence
101, 136, 164, 178Slate wagonsTalyllyn RailwayThree 2-bar and one 3-bar wooden slate wagons, owned by the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum.
117Incline openTalyllyn RailwayOriginal general purpose wagon, built with sheet iron sides and designed to prevent spillages while hauled on the Abergynolwyn village incline, owned by the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum.
146No. 2 Covered vanTalyllyn RailwayOriginal van, owned by the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum.
NMail WaggonCorris RailwayOwned by the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum.

Narrow Gauge Railway Museum rolling stock

The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum is a purpose-built museum dedicated to narrow gauge railways situated on the Tywyn Wharf station. It owns several wagons formerly in use on the railway, as well as rolling stock and other artefacts from other narrow gauge railways around the world. The wagons are still used occasionally on the Talyllyn.

Liveries

The standard livery for locomotives on the Talyllyn is deep bronze green, lined in black and yellow, although since the 1980s there has been a policy of varying some of the liveries for a period of time.
The liveries carried by the steam locomotives as of 2018 are as follows:-
The vintage rolling stock and the carriages built for the line after preservation are cherry red, lined with deep bronze green. Additionally, the railway has preserved rolling stock from other railways. These retain their original liveries.
The Corris coach and brake van are brown lined with gold leaf and the two Glyn Valley Tramway coaches are green lined with white.

In fiction

Most of the locomotives have an equivalent counterpart on the fictional Skarloey Railway, a railway that forms part of The Railway Series of books by Rev. W Awdry and his son Christopher. The Rev. W Awdry visited the Talyllyn Railway on a family holiday in the early days of preservation and became involved as a volunteer soon afterwards.