Alice (locomotive)
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| Type and origin | |
|---|---|
| Power type | Steam |
| Builder | Hunslet Engine Company |
| Serial number | 780 |
| Build date | 1902 |
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Configuration | 0-4-0ST |
| UIC class | B n2t |
| Gauge | 2 ft (610 mm) |
| Driver dia. | 1 ft 8 in (508 mm) |
| Fuel type | Coal |
| Water cap | 120 imp gal (550 l; 140 US gal) |
| Boiler pressure | 140 lbf/in2 (965 kPa) |
| Cylinders | Two |
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Operators | |
| Class | Alice |
Alice, a Hunslet 0-4-0 ST, used to work in the Dinorwic slate quarries at Llanberis, in North Wales. Built in 1902, as Works No. 780, the locomotive was originally called ‘No. 4’. There was an earlier Alice which was built in 1889 (Works No. 492), later renamed King of the Scarlets.
There were 15 similar engines supplied between 1886 and 1932, the first of which was Velinheli (Works No. 409 of 1886), but for some reason, the Class was named after the first ‘Alice’. Over 46 years a number of changes were made to the design, some so substantial as to warrant an unofficial sub-class known as the ‘Port’ Class.
Alice, in common with most of the class, did not have a dome but a steam chamber produced by the firebox outer shell being raised some six inches above the boiler barrel. It was not usual to fit cabs to these engines since they had to work under incline bridges and through tunnels in the quarries.
Alice spent all of its life working on various galleries at the Dinorwic slate quarry. The locomotive was in consequence rarely photographed. By the early 1960s the locomotive was out of use and was partially dismantled to provide spares for her sister locomotives at Dinorwic. She was parked looking very sorry for herself in a shed at the Australia gallery.
When the quarry at Dinorwic closed in 1969, Alice’s remains were still at the Australia gallery. The wheels and underparts had been salvaged and these were sold as spares for her sister locomotive Holy War.
Holy War was the last steam locomotive to work in a slate quarry, ending her working life in November 1967. Holy War was purchased, along with the spares from Alice by J. Marshfield Hutchings and went to Quainton Road, Buckinghamshire. In 1975 Holy War and the spares from Alice were purchased by the Rev. Alan Cliff, Vice-President of the Bala Lake Railway Society and brought to Llanuwchllyn, the headquarters of the Bala Lake Railway, and were leased to the railway.
In the meantime, Alice’s frames and tank were recovered and taken to the West Lancashire Light Railway at Hesketh Bank, near Preston. In 1977 these remains were acquired jointly by Alan Cliff and George Barnes, who was then the General Manager and Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Bala Lake Railway. Their acquisition meant that what remained of Alice was together again.
The Bala Lake Railway was loaned the parts of Alice and announced that it intended to rebuild the locomotive as an 0-4-2 tender locomotive. However, many other priorities made that intention impossible, although some work was done on the frames.
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Wikipedia