documentation has come to light regarding the Talyllyn

Extension to Talyllyn Lake.



Members may be interested to learn that papers have recently
been found, in a solicitor’s office, detailing a proposal in respect of an
extension of the Talyllyn Railway to Talyllyn Lake.



The paperwork reveals that this was one of the driving
reasons behind the enquiries made by Haydn Jones to acquire additional motive
power for the Railway. As well as
additional motive power it seems that he also made enquiries about provision of
additional coaching stock from the suppliers of carriages 1 – 3, Brown
Marshall, by then the Metropolitan
Amalgamated Railway Carriage & Wagon Company, these were to be
similar to the bogie coach built for the Plynlimon and Hafan by George F Milns
& Company of Birkenhead.



The extension provides a further mystery as it appears, from
the very poor quality drawings, that it was intended to divert the railway well
before it reached Abergynolwyn in order to take advantage of easier terrain on
the way up the valley, also perhaps to ensure that the railway in its higher
reaches was in sunshine for the majority of the day.



The terminus at Talyllyn Lake was to be on the side of the
lake, crossing the road in order to reach the lakeside. No details are given in respect of the style
of building or the crossing. It would
have been in a poor location at the foot of the steep road gradient away from
the lake by the Pen Y Bont hotel.



The proposal seems to have got no further than very outline
planning with a few tentative enquiries being made in respect of locomotives
and rolling stock.



It was of course about this time that Haydn Jones was
seeking election as an MP for the area, perhaps he was trying to prove how he
as an MP could benefit the local area through the provision of an
infrastructure scheme to provide short term jobs with the possibility of more
permanent work later if the scheme was successful.



One document does give thought to the cost of the scheme,
but there are no details of what each element was to cost, nor any details of
the total scheme costs, or the employment that would ensue.



What, ones muses, would have been the impact on the Talyllyn
if this scheme had come to fruition.
Would Pendre have been developed into a much larger enterprise with
additional running sheds and a much larger works being constructed? There would also have had to be additional
carriage sheds constructed to store the new coaches that were proposed. The Talyllyn may of course become a commercial
success and would not have been deemed unworthy of Nationalisation, thus
forming part of the group of Railways taken into Public ownership like the
Welshpool, Corris and Vale of Rheidol.
It could of course have been seen as a worthy purchase for the Great
Western Railway thus leading to the locomotives going to Swindon or Oswestry
for overhaul and emerging with GWR details added. Perhaps Locos 3 & 4 would have made their way to the Talyllyn
earlier than 1951 if additional motive power were needed at short notice.



However all this was not to come to fruition and so the
Talyllyn was handed to the TRPS in 1951 much as it was when it was first
constructed way back in 1864/65.



The Solicitors, who are based in Laniog, at 1 Flair Pool,
were more than happy to hand over the documentation to the Talyllyn, their
Managing Partner Mr Dinwiddy commented that “I trust this discovery will help
the Talyllyn establish further details of the history of the Railway in the
early part of the Century” The
Solicitors had not acted for other Railways making them an unusual choice,
perhaps commercial confidence was uppermost in Haydn Jones thoughts at the
time.



The papers will go into archive once they have been
reviewed, conserved and catalogued.

 

Flair Pool ?


Good one.

 

I take we bear in mind today's date when we read this ....