Narrow Gauge Railway Writing

The definitive history of the 1ft 11in gauge Hendre Ddu Tramway at Aberangell in Mid Wales.

"Dan Quine, author of this new work on the tramway... is certainly an author who does his homework.... The tramways and their operations are fully described, as is each individual quarry, and there is a chapter on rolling stock which includes excellent scale drawings... Plenty of top quality period photos and multi-coloured maps help create a full picture of what is a definitive work... All narrow gauge enthusiasts will find the book of great interest... especially if you are a student of the slate industry" - Review in Narrow Gauge World, Issue 174, May 2023

The Ffestiniog Railway's original locomotives were built by George England of New Cross, London. This book covers the history of the locomotives and their use on the FR.

The Croesor Tramway was a horse-operated narrow gauge railway built in 1864 to connect the slate quarries at the head of the remote Croesor valley with the slate wharves at Porthmadog. The railway operated for nearly 100 years, through many changes of ownership and the booms and busts of the slate industry. In February 2007, I was able to walk along much of the upper reaches of the tramway, recording the remains of this spectacular line.

Join me as I walk the length of Cwm Croesor and climb the inclines rising above Blaen-y-cwm to the haunting remains of Croesor Quarry, perched hundreds of feet above the valley floor. There is much to be found: fine Victorian civil engineering as the line clings to the headwall of the valley; the parabolic inclines to Rhosydd and Croesor quarries; the desolate mill floor at Croesor hanging above the valley; the magnificent ridge of Cnicht towering over all.

The second part of my article about the narrow-gauge railroads near Trona, CA covers the rolling stock used on the lines.

The 2025 issue of the Corris railway Society's Journal covers research on the history of the railway before 1878. It includes new discoveries on the original Machynlleth Town Station, as well as horse and gravity operations and early passenger vehicles.

A history of the slate quarries and associated tramways at Esgairgeiliog, from 1850 to 1950. Scheduled to appear in the 2026 Corris Journal

California was a major producer of copper, but the industry is overshadowed by gold mining. Copperopolis, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, was the largest producer of copper in California in the 1860s, but it faced many challenges. Despite huge investments, the mining companies there repeatedly failed. This paper uses newspaper reports, historical sources, contemporary and modern maps, a 2023 site survey, and drone photography to unravel the complex history of the site. It describes the technical operations of the mines and their processing facilities, and the transportation systems that served them. It concludes with an explanation of why Copperopolis ultimately failed.

The history of the Corris Railway before the introduction of steam locomotives, presenting original research on Machynlleth Town Station and the earlest passenger "carriages". It also examines the horse and gravity operations of the railway.

The early development of Tan-y-Bwlch Station on the Festiniog Railway.

The Welsh slate industry was plagued with fraud, scams and dodgy dealings. This article pulls back the covers on some of these, from the Corris solicitor who stole from his elderly clients to support multiple scams at Esgairgeiliog, to wholesale frauds at Hendreddu, and stock scams around the Welsh Highland Railway.

The surprisingly complex changes at Corris Station, between 1859 and 1949

The first of a two-part series on the 24-inch gauge railroads that ran onto Searles Lake, a dry lake on the edge of Death Valley. This part describes the four railroads.

A detailed look at the unusual railroads of at the Yellow Aster goldmine at Randsburg, CA. The second part covers the ore cars used.

More history of the horse-worked tramway that connected the Talyllyn Railway and Bryn Eglwys quarry. It includes details of how the inclines were operated.

The first part of this article is a detailed look at the unusual locomotives used at the Yellow Aster goldmine at Randsburg,. CA

In 1878, the Corris Railway was substantially rebuilt to allow for the use of steam locomotives. But the railway had been running for 19 years before that as a horse tramway. Previously published histories of the Corris have said the first station at Machynlleth was the 1874 building below the Cambrian Railways station. We present substantial new research that suggests there was an earlier Corris station at Machynlleth, which we have called Machynlleth Town.

This article explores the history of the ironstone quarries of the Eastwell Iron Ore Company and the 3ft gauge railways that served them. It contains a great deal of new research, especially about the continuous incline that connected the railway to the Great Northern and London and North Western Joint Railway. It includes many previously unpublished photographs of the railway, as well as original maps and scale drawings, and descriptions of the rolling stock.

In 1949, David Elliott visited the Talyllyn Railway and took an extraordinary series of colour photographs of the first train of the season. This article, published 75 years after his visit, shows many of the photos he took, several of which have not previously been published.

A detailed look at the Hendre Ddu Tramway's home-built locomotive. Built from the parts of an early Willys-Overland 3/4-ton truck, this successful locomotive had a short life and an intertesting afterlife.

The second part of this article looks in detail at the components that remain at the quarry and reconstructs the crane and incline system.

The remote Cae Abaty quarry presents some of the deepest mysteries in the Welsh slate industry. Despite closing more than 110 year ago, a remarkable set of artefacts remain, yet the history of the quarry is largely lost. The first part of this article presents the overall development of the quarry.

California's 1849 Gold Rush established the state's fortunes, but its mineral riches extended beyond gold. This article explores a few of the many metal mines of California and the wide variety of narrow-gauge railroads that served them.

The Yellow Aster mine was for many years the most productive gold mine in Southern California. This article describes the fascinating steam and gasoline locomotives used on the 2ft 6in gauge railways there.

The second part of the history of Port Penrhyn, covering the period from the opening of the Penrhyn Quarry Railway to closure of the port as a slate exporter in 1963.

A comprehensive history of the development of Port Penrhyn before the arrival of the Penrhyn Quarry Railway in 1876.

The second part of the article about the Corris Railway and the Hendre Ddu Tramway describes some of the people who connected the two railways.

The Corris Railway and the Hendre Ddu Tramway ran in adjacent valleys in mid Wales and they both served slate quarries and timber extraction. The first part of this article explores the similarity in equipment used by these two narrow gauge lines.

An account of a trip on the Talyllyn in 1949, with contemporary photographs

New research on the passenger trains that were run on the Corris Railway before 1883, including a scale drawing of the closed carriages used.

F.C. Blake was a very early car manufacturer. Just after the turn of the 19th. Century, he also produced at least two narrow gauge locomotives. This article details one of these locomotives and the tramway it worked on at the Richmond Main Sewerage Board Railway.

The last of my series of articles on the East Midlands Ironstone Railways covers the system at Scaldwell. This short, but fascinating system ran near Lamport and was connected to the LNWR by an aerial ropeway. It had a pair of extremely attractive Peckett locomotives, one of which survives at the Amberley museum. The article has new maps and drawings, as well as a set of previously unpublished colour photographs of the railway.

The history of Baguley 774, to celebrate its return to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum, in Tywyn

Baguley locomotive 774 was built in 1919 and is one of the earliest surviving internal combustion locomotives. Its early history has long been surrounded in mystery, with some sources claiming it worked on the Hendre Ddu Tramway. New research shows that the locomotive worked on the Pennal Tramway from construction until 1920. This article covers the history of the working life and preservation of 774, as well as the Pennal Timber Tramway.

The third part of the series covers the last of the narrow gauge ironstone railways, at Wellingborough. This line was well known to the enthusiast community because it lasted until 1966, but it's early history is largely obscure. This article expands and clarifies the complete history of the railway and the other tramways between Wellingborough and Finedon.

This second article in the series covers perhaps the most well-known of the narrow gauge ironstone railways, that at the Kettering Furnaces. The article include previously unpublished colour photographs, newly drawn maps and rolling stock diagrams and significant new research on the history of the railway.

This article is the first in a series of four, each covering the history of one of the narrow gauge ironstone railways that once criss-crossed the hills of the East Midlands. This first article covers the fascinating metre-gauge line of the Waltham Iron Ore Company in the Vale of Belvoir. The article include previously unpublished colour photographs, newly drawn maps and rolling stock diagrams and significant new research on the history of the railway.

The story of the demise of the Corris Railway and its scrapping, told with a set of photographs of the line as it was demolished.

Photographs of the railways at Penrhyn quarry from 1949 to 1964, at the close of steam operations. Historic and previously unpublished photos showing the Port, the mainline to the quarry, Coed y Parc and the "scrap line" and the quarry itself.

The Society for the Preservation of Carter Railway Resources is an American preservation group, who run a 3ft gauge railway at the Ardenwood State Park in California. This article details the annual Rail Fairs they run, often with visiting steam locomotives.

The short-lived Meirion Mill Railway,at Dinas Mawddwy, is one of the less well-known narrow gauge railways of Wales. This article gives the history of the railway and Trevor Barber's pioneering new build locomotive Trixie.

A short taster article showing two of the David Elliot colour photographs of the Talyllyn Railway in April 1949.

The evolution of the locomotive Dolgoch in the immediate pre-preservation era, with many new, historic images.

Immediately following the Second World War, Britain's industries modernised and hundreds of narrow gauge railways were closed. A few far-sighted railway enthusiasts realised they were witnessing the end of an era and they rescued locomotives, track and rolling stock from industrial railways.

This article focuses on three such private narrow gauge railways - the Wychbold Railway, the Hindslip and District Light Railway and the Wychwood Railway. All were located in the West Midlands, all operated during the 1960s and they all closed within a year of each other in 1970/71.

The Talyllyn Railway opened in 1865, carrying slates from Bryn Eglwys quarry to Tywyn. From the start it was worked by a pair of steam locomotives. The line and quarry thrived until 1910, when slate production began to decline. The railway and quarry were sold to the local MP, Sir Henry Haydn Jones. He vowed to keep the railway running as long as he lived, and good to his word he kept it running on a shoestring budget until his death in 1950. The article describes the railway in the period 1946 to 1950; it includes a set of extremely rare colour photographs from this time.

Over the Easter weekend of 1949, railway enthusiast David Elliot toured the narrow gauge railways of Wales. He had with him a precious resource - colour film. I have been lucky enough to acquire a set of these rare colour photographs and this article - still in preparation - describes the scenes he captured. There are photographs of the Talyllyn and Vale of Rheidol (shown above) railways in operation, the recently closed Corris Railway and the defunct Ffestiniog Railway.

The Pike Brother's tramway from Creech to Ridge Wharf ran from the 1840 to 1957. This unusual 2ft 8in gauge railway had a large stable of steam locomotives. This article describes them, with a set of interesting photographs to illustrate it.

A conference paper on the first gasoline locomotives in the US

A seminar on the marble quarry at Mock, near Keeler, California. The quarry was connected to the 3ft gauge Carson and Colorado Railroad

A presentation on the railroads used at the Yellow Aster mine, Randsburg.

A paper presented at the 2019 SHS Conference on the impact of English industrialists on the Aberangell area