Fire Queen
''Fire Queen'' is an early steam locomotive built by A. Horlock and Co in 1848 for the Padarn Railway. It is the only surviving locomotive from that railway, and it is preserved at the Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum. History ''Fire Queen'' was one of two identical locomotives built for the Padarn Railway, which connected the Dinorwic Quarry near Llanberis in north Wales with the port at Y Felinheli. The railway was opened in 1840 using horses to pull the slate trains. It replaced the even earlier Dinorwic Railway which opened in 1824. The two locomotives, ''Fire Queen'' and ''Jenny Lind'', were built by marine engineers A. Horlock and Co. They were the only railway locomotives built by this company. The locomotives were based on an 1847 patent of Thomas Crampton, which specified a locomotive with driving wheels positioned at the ends of the boiler driven by steeply inclined cylinders placed between the wheels. The locomotives lacked a frame, and the wheels and cylinders were ...
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Padarn Railway
The Padarn Railway was a narrow gauge railway in North Wales, built to the unusual gauge of . It carried slate from Dinorwic Quarry to Port Dinorwic. The line opened on 3 March 1843, replacing the Dinorwic Railway. It initially used horses, but was converted to steam haulage on 23 November 1848. The railway was formally titled the Dinorwic Quarries Railway or Dinorwic Quarry Railway, but informally "Padarn Railway" was widely used. The railway officially closed on 3 November 1961. The locomotive ''Dinorwic'' performed the last practical services by hauling the track-lifting trains. Transporter wagons An unusual feature of the railway was the transporter wagons, also referred to as "Host wagons" and to the workmen by the English names "Big Cars" or "Large Trolleys". These gauge vehicles were flat wagons with two parallel "Quarry Gauge" – – tracks on them. Without loads these vehicles resembled modern day "Container Flats". Loaded Quarry Gauge slate wagons were wheeled ...
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