Dinorwic Quarries and Padarn Railway

Slate has been quarried at Llandeiniolen and Llanberis since about 1700, on land belonging to the Vaenol Estate, owned by the Assheton Smith family. In 1788 a “Great New Quarry” was started at Llanberis overlooking the lake. This was followed by the building of a quay at Port Dinorwic on the Menai Straits to which the slates were taken by horse drawn carts. In 1824 a railway of 1ft 10¾in gauge was laid, along which trains of wagons were pulled by horses. Eventually the production of slate outgrew this transport system.

By 1843 a new 4ft gauge line was built for 6½ miles from Gilfach Ddu along the north east side of Llyn Padarn to Penllyn and on to Penscoins. This part of the Dinorwic system was often called the Padarn Railway. The little slate wagons were brought down rope worked inclines from the quarries, then run along the 1ft 10¾in gauge mainline to Gilfach Ddu. There they were loaded on to transporter or “host” wagons, four at a time, and taken to Penscoins. Once at Penscoins they were removed from the host wagons and sent down a further rope worked incline to Port Dinorwic where they were unloaded into ships or mainline railway wagons.

Two steam locomotives Fire Queen and Jenny Lind were introduced in 1848. Fire Queen still survives in the museum at Penrhyn Castle. They were replaced during the 1880s and 1890s when the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds supplied three six-wheeled locomotives, Dinorwic (1882), Amalthæa (1886) and Velinheli (1895) to work the slate traffic and the quarrymen’s trains.

For use in the quarry the Hunslet Engine Company supplied twenty small locomotives of 1ft 10¾in gauge between 1872 and 1932 and a further two for shunting on the quay at Port Dinorwic. Three more came from other sources. At the height of operations over 2000 slate wagons were in use at Dinorwic, on fifty miles of narrow gauge line. 15000 men were employed.

By 1961 however, falling demand for slate and lack of use of Port Dinorwic caused the Padarn railway to be closed and the equipment scrapped. The quarry worked on until the continuing decline in demand for slate led to closure of the whole undertaking in 1969. By then many of the locomotives had been disposed of for preservation, among them Rough Pup (1891) now in this museum. Three others provide the motive power for the Llanberis Lake Railway, a tourist line built in 1971 on the site of the former four foot gauge line along the shore of the lake. There is now no slate production at Llanberis. The quarry workshops survive and form the National Slate Museum. Port Dinorwic is being redeveloped for housing. The dock is used by yachts.