The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum

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The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum

The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum, Wharf Station, Tywyn, Gwynedd, Wales LL36 9EY

Registered Charity

A museum covering all aspects of the narrow gauge railways of the British Isles, and of the Talyllyn Railway in Particular.

23/06/2026

Weekly Exhibit

An exhibit with a difference. The Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company, with a network of narrow gauge lines in the north of Ireland, was an early adopter of road transport. The L&LSR railway network closed in 1953, the Company continuing to operate road services even after it was sold in 1981. By this time, the L&LSR had become one of the longest-lived railway companies in either Ireland or Britain, having outlasted nearly all the others by many years.

The “Swilly” buses continued to run until it closed down on Saturday 19 April 2014, having gone into liquidation. The final service was a bus from Derry at 18.00 to Letterkenny where it arrived at 18.40.

22/06/2026

For today's "More Monday" we have a little "commercial interlude" - the NGRM have published an eBook "Nant Gwernol 50" to commemorate the rebuilding of the line between Nant Gwernol and the foot of the Alltwyllt Incline. The museum collection of photographs has been raided and there are some previously unpublished photographs from David Mitchell and the Fuller Family.

164 pages, in both colour and black-and-white with newly-drawn maps and a wealth of fresh research all for £10. Proceeds from the sale of this eBook are being split between the NGRM and the TRCo.
It is available online here:

https://www.talyllynshop.co.uk/i_eshop?bi=TalyllynRa&id=17579

Plus, next Saturday the Talyllyn Railway's Youtube channel will have another "walkabout" video and it will feature extracts from both the book and the NGRM online photographic collection.

20/06/2026

Museum working party 18th June 2026

After last weeks washout the weather was humid with sunny spells for the working party in Wharf Yard this morning. Andy Sheffield, Derek Putley, David Broadbent and John Olsen began by uncovering the Corris Mail Waggon frame and then Corris wagon no. 16. David and John dug out a new tin of acid etch primer paint and then spent some 10 minutes battling with the special clip that held the lid firmly in place. It took a combination of screwdriver and pliers to eventually break the 'seal' and allow David to commence stirring the contents and, eventually, finish painting the inside of no. 16.

Derek acted as spannerman to Andy as they fitted the 'nylock' nuts to the Mail Waggon brake gear and then went round the frame tightening up all the myriad bolts, from the chunky 25mm brake hangers cm tie bars to the dinky 12mm coach bolts of the corner brackets. We were about to embark upon a spot of cutting with an angle grinder, to remove the excess thread of the brake hangers, when a group of visitors, intrigued by our actvities, came over and asked what we were up to. This interlude lasted until the first train of the day was waved away and out visitors went in search of the Slate Trail Train (yet to come down from Pendre) and we went in search of refreshments in the cafe. Ann McCanna, Charles Benedetto and Keith Theobald joined us for coffee, very chocolatey biscuits and chat.

Crossing back over the tracks Derek and John retrieved the long batten, made last week for suspending the 'William Finlay' selfie frame (courtesy of funding by Kids in Museums), while David cleaned up his paint brush and Andy wire brushed a pair of Penrhyn Quarry Railway chairs. John had painted the batten and the clips during the week so that it 'only' remained to drill the selfie frame, attach it to the batten, and then hang the batten from William's cab roof.

Upon offering the batten up to the cab it was evident that the two footplate cameras were going to have to be moved before the frame could be hung. This was duly done and the batten secured to the new clips with a pair of cable ties; the whole looking very smart from inside the cab and down on the floor behind William. Fortuitously the clips had a second hole in them that was then utilised to attach the cameras to for a professional finish. Albeit one that required a lot of fiddling to get the views both centred correctly and the frame vertical, as the two axis mount was not optimally aligned for alt-azimuth movements; moving one axis threw the other out of kilter!

Then it only remained to put the wagon covers back on and tidy up all the tools for another week before leaving site.

Photos by John Olsen

18/06/2026

For today's "Thursday Delve" we have two parts:

Firstly - https://www.talyllynshop.co.uk/i_eshop?bi=TalyllynRa&id=17579

This link will take you to (hopefully) the first eBook produced by the NGRMT and is called "Nant Gwernol 50" - it is being sold by the Talyllyn Railway with the profits being shared between the NGRM and the TRCo. It features photographic gems from the NGRM collection and the personal collections of David Mitchell and the Fuller Family.

The second part of today's "Thursday Delve" also features Nant Gwernol, but back in September 1952, taken by John Snell we see No 4 Edward Thomas at the foot of Alltwyllt Incline, this was the furthest a steam engine had been in the preservation era. Bill Harvey is seen lighting his pipe.

16/06/2026

Weekly Exhibit

A drawing of locomotive ‘Camber’ showing some of the principle dimensions. Camber was built by W.G.Bagnall works no.1461 in 1895. The locomotive was built to run on the 3ft gauge Rye and Camber Tramway, which was the first railway designed by consulting engineer Holman F. Stephens.

13/06/2026

Museum working party 11th June 2026

Wharf yard was bathed in …... Welsh rain this morning, and it showed no signs of stopping, so the jobs were going to have to be indoors.

Only Paul Lolley and John Olsen were on site this soggy day, sorting out the hanging arrangements for a selfie frame. The trustees had agreed to this being positioned in the open back of William Finlay's footplate, where the wind won't send it cartwheeling down the platform, and many visitors already take their photos. The plan is to use a wooden batten, non destructively, attached to the cab roof; the first batten was found to be a little too short for the proposed fixing arrangement and a longer batten was found in the North Wall storage area in the museum. As this had been used in the past to support items while they were being painted it needed to be sanded down to remove most of the paint blobs and dribbles. But by the time we had delved into various stores to find the batten and retrieve the selfie frame it was time to slake our thirst and eat some biscuits.

We were joined in the cafe by Charles Benedetto and Keith Theobald, who were once again sorting and cataloguing pictures bequeathed to the museum, but no one else braved the rains.

Refreshed we split the team with Paul over in the Gunpowder Store sanding the batten and John hunting through the many little tubs of useful nuts bolts and brackets we keep in the North Wall store to find the makings of the clamps. During this rummage he found some angle shelf brackets that were suitable for attaching large bulldog clips to, which were found in the Gunpowder Store, and a previously unconsidered clamping arrangement was born! It did need the fixing holes opening out before the clips could be bolted to the brackets but once that was done a test fitting to William showed them to be eminently suitable.

Paul needed to leave site for another engagement so he left the prepared batten for John to paint. Additional paint needs to be applied to cover the odd stubborn paint splodge and to paint all sides and this will be attended to during the coming week. With three sides painted it that was a good time to wrap up proceedings, put all the bits away again and leave site while it was not raining.

12/06/2026

For today's (delayed) "Thursday Delve" we head to Boot station in Eskdale, on the original iteration of the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. Here is one of the 3' gauge engines and two of the 3' gauge carriages, the line ran on the wider gauge than today from 1875 until 1913. Unusually too (for UK narrow gauge), the railway went for air brakes: the air pump is visible beside the boiler.
...and as a bonus I also attach an image of some R&ER tickets that were formerly your scribe's, and are now residing on Gigha with a good friend. The R&ER used an unusual dating system for their tickets, I believe it is Year, Month, Day, Number of Train.

09/06/2026

Weekly Exhibit

An Isle of Man 1936 handbill advertising the open-air service at Kirk Braddan. The church was close to Braddan Halt, which was about 1½ miles from Douglas on the Peel line. Special trains were run from Douglas for this very popular event on summer Sundays.

08/06/2026

For today's "More Monday" we'll head out west. About as far west as you could get by rail (almost - I think Di**le and Valentia Harbour were further west) . We'll head to Burtonport. Also did you know that the NGRM has a big library of tickets online too? I've included some Burtonport tickets today.

So, for the photo - it's taken looking away from the bufferstops of Burtonport toward the quay - how long did the remnant of the pier line stay down? Are those stone posts belonging to the station?

05/06/2026

Museum working party 4th June 2026

The low clouds were rather ominous over Wharf Yard this morning, but the seaweed was dry so the select band of Andy Sheffield, Pete Thomas, David Broadbent and John Olsen got down to business.

The yellow cover came off the Corris Mail Waggon frame and Pete and Andy were given fresh supplies of M16 nuts, bolts and washers to connect up the brake gear as the 5/8ths Whitworth bolts, we had found last week in the bits bin, were too long for the job. John put a first coat of red oxide paint on the outer face of Corris no. 16 door while Postmaster David was sorting out the railway letters service.

We got a cry for help from handyman Steve as he didn't have the tools to undo the hole cutting tool from the drill extensions, a simple enough job you might think. Not so. It took the combined talents of Andy and Pete together with big spanners and the judicious application of a blowtorch to get the parts separated. By then it was time to wave away the first train of the day and cross the tracks to join Ann McCanna for our morning coffee and chat. Charles Benedetto and Keith Theobald took time out from picture cataloguing to join us in the cafe.

Refreshed we went back to the jobs in hand and David took up the challenge of painting the interior sides of Corris no. 16 with acid etch primer, while Andy and Pete discovered that the new bolts were either just too short, to allow a lock nut to be fitted, or much too long. A solution has been found; we will swap out the single nuts for Nylok nuts that do not need a locking nut. But in the interim the single nut remained in place and the pair went round the wagon tightening up all the many other nuts before a rather persistent rain shower closed us down.

David had reached the end of the can of paint at much the same time and John had to leave the last three Penrhyn Quarry Railway chairs for cleaning and waxing until next week. The covers were restored and all the tools tidied away for another week.

Photos by John Olsen

Address

Wharf Station
Tywyn
LL369EY

Telephone

+441654710472

Website

http://www.narrowgaugerailwaymuseum.org.uk/

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