Talyllyn Railway was opened in 1866 on a two foot three inch gauge and it was steam operated from the beginning. The railway runs seven and a quarter miles between Tywyn (NPRN 41339) and Nant Gwernol, near Abergynolwyn, from where a series of horse-worked tramways served Bryn Eglwys slate quarries (NPRN 40589).
When the quarry closed in 1947 a skeleton service was maintained and in 1950 the world's first railway preservation society (the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society) was formed with the intention of restoring the line to working order. The railway is currently fully operational for tourist use.
Source: Association for Industrial Archaeology: A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Mid-Wales, 1984
Claire Parry, RCAHMW, 14 June 2011.
2.
The Talyllyn Railway is a public narrow-gauge railway, 11.7 km long, opened in 1866, which connected Bryneglwys slate quarry with the standard gauge railway at Tywyn. It was built for the McConnel brothers of Manchester, textile merchants and quarry-owners, by James Swinton Spooner, of the Spooner family associated with the Festiniog Railway, and adapted the Festiniog Railway’s distinctive technology. The Talyllyn Railway was innovative in that it was designed from the outset for locomotive haulage and to operate a passenger service. The railway was the first to be rescued from closure by voluntary effort; since 1950 it has been operated by the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society as a visitor attraction. It operates its original locomotives and carriages through a landscape which retains much of its 19th century character, where line-side hedges through pastureland give way to shallow contour embankments and cuttings along wooded slopes.
The Talyllyn Railway is also internationally significant as the first railway to be successfully operated by a preservation movement. Line-side hedges through pastureland on the lower section give way to shallow contour embankments and cuttings along wooded slopes as it climbs towards the quarry. It retains its original locomotives and carriages and some of its slate wagons, as well as of many of its nineteenth century buildings and infrastructure.
The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum at Tywyn Wharf station interprets this technology, and sets out the role of the slate industry of Wales in its evolution.
Statement of Significance:
The Talyllyn Railway is a public narrow-gauge railway, 11.7 km long, opened in 1866, which connected Bryneglwys slate quarry (6.1-2) with the standard gauge railway at Tywyn, unlike its predecessors (1.3, 2.7, 3.9, 4.4 and 5.10) which all connected with the sea. It was built for the McConnel brothers of Manchester, textile merchants and quarry-owners, by James Swinton Spooner, of the Spooner family associated with the Festiniog Railway (5.10). The Talyllyn Railway was innovative in that it was designed from the outset for locomotive haulage and to operate a passenger service. The railway was the first to be rescued from closure by voluntary effort; since 1950 it has been operated by the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society as a visitor attraction. It operates its original locomotives and carriages through a landscape which retains much of its nineteenth century character, where line-side hedges through pastureland give way to shallow contour embankments and cuttings along wooded slopes. Dolgoch viaduct is built of brick, reflecting the railway’s connections with the national railway network and materials which did not have to be resourced locally.
This site is part of the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales World Heritage Site, Component Part 6: Bryneglwys Quarry, Abergynolwyn Village and the Talyllyn Railway. Inscribed July 2020.
Sources:
Hannah Genders Boyd, RCAHMW, March 2022