Rhosydd Quarry
Rhosydd Slate Quarry lies in a mountain pass between the Croesor and Cwmorthin valleys. The first slate from it came over the FR in 1854 and quarrying ceased in 1930. In 1864 it was circuitously connected to the FR at Porthmadog via its own spectacular incline (a 671' vertical fall over a horizontal distance of 1250', engineered by Charles Easton Spooner) and the Croesor Tramway. Boyd mentions wagons allotted to the Rhosydd company arriving on the FR via the Cwmorthin Quarry Incline, the wagons having been let down the rough mountain track from the quarry and then along the Conglog Quarry tramway!
This, although the most obvious route for slate leaving Rhosydd (being about two miles from Tanygrisiau), could not be used regularly because the Cwmorthin company would not permit operation of a connecting tramway over its property.
The photo is of the restored Rhosydd wagon in the FR heritage collection. As there was no indication at all of what number the original (iron) bits of the only remaining Rhosydd Quarry wooden wagon carried, Bob Rainbow, the leader of the wagon's restoration team gave it the fictitous number 54 as he understood there was a total of 54 such wagons. (Bob Rainbow FR E-group posting 45100 )
The WHR(P) collection includes a reconstructed megryn (gripper car) from the floor 9 adit.
References[edit]
- Boyd The Festiniog Railway, Volume Two
- M J T Lewis & J.H. Denton, Rhosydd Slate Quarry. Shrewsbury: Cottage Press, 1974 (and later editions)
- Dave Sallery's excellent site on Rhosydd Quarry