FOR about 60 years there has been an industrial railway museum at Penrhyn Castle in North Wales. The National Trust has decided to dispose of all items that have no connection with Penrhyn Slate Quarry and hence the castle, which was built for the quarry owners.
Thus, for example, the 1848 loco Fire Queen is currently on display at theVale of Rheidol Railway’s museum at Aberystwyth (page 12, February) and the 1871 Neilson locomotive from Beckton gasworks has gone to the Scottish RPS at Bo’ness (see page 65 this month).
However, one locomotive is not going to an accredited museum to ensure its continued preservation, as 3ft-gauge Kettering Furnaces No .3 (built by Black, Hawthorn &Co in 1885) is going to the Waterford &Suir Valley Railway in the Irish Republic, which intends to spend 250,000 euros rebuilding it (see Irish news this month).