Fire Queen

Infobox Locomotive
name=Fire Queen
powertype=Steam


builddate=1848
whytetype=0-4-0
cylindercount=2
railroad=Padarn Railway
gauge=RailGauge|48
retiredate= late 1880s
currentowner=Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum
disposition=static display

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 an 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 has opened in 1824. cite book |title=Penrhyn Castle Industrial Museum |publisher=The National Trust |year=1982 |edition=3rd. Edition]

The two locomotives, "Fire Queen" and "Jenny Lind", were built by marine engineers A. Horlock and C.; they were the only railway locomotives built by this company. The locomotives were based on a patent of Thomas Crampton's of 1847, 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, the wheels and cylinders were attached directly to the boiler.

They were delivered to the railway in 1848 and continued working until life expired in the late 1880s. "Jenny Lind" was scrapped, but "Fire Queen" was placed in a small shed at the quarry workshop, Gilfach Ddu. It stayed there until the quarry closed in 1969 at which time it was sold to John Smith MP and loaned to the nearby Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum where it remains on display.

References