Brecon Mountain Railway

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Brecon Mountain Railway
Welsh: Rheilffordd Mynydd Brycheiniog

Brecknockshire


Graf Schwerin-Löwitz (1908) on the Brecon Mountain Railway
Gauge: 1 ft 11¾ in
Location: 51°48’33"N, 3°22’2"W
No. of stations: 3
Track: 5 miles
Headquarters: Merthyr Tydfil
Information
Owned by: Brecon Mountain Railway Ltd
Operated by: Brecon Mountain Railway Ltd

The Brecon Mountain Railway is a narrow-gauge tourist railway that runs for five miles[1] through the Brecon Beacons, on a track with a gauge of 1 foot 11¾ inches. It was built though on the line of a standard-gauge main-line railway.

The railway is to be found three miles north of Merthyr Tydfil in Glamorgan, and it runs along the full length of the Pontsticill Reservoir and uphill passing the nearby upper (Pentwyn) reservoir to Torpantau.

Route of the BMR

US-built Baldwin Pacific No. 2 (built 1930)

The line, runs along part of the trackbed of the northern section of the former standard-gauge Brecon and Merthyr Railway from Pant to a new station at Torpantau, via Pontsticill and Dolygaer Loop, which is total length of approximately five miles.

This line has taken the Brecon and Merthyr Railway just short of the southern entrance to the 667-yard long Torpantau tunnel, the highest railway tunnel in Great Britain,[2] that carried the original line through the hills along the side of Glyn Collwn to Brecon.

One of the benefits of the line, and a condition of the planning permission, is that tourists can access and experience remote parts of the Brecon Beacons National Park without driving their cars through it.[3] Car parking for railway passengers is only available at Pant Station, outside the National Park.

The Brecon Mountain Railway is a fellow member of the 'Great Little Trains of Wales'.

Stations of the BMR

  • Pant (Glamorgan)
  • Pontsticill - beside the Pontsticill Reservoir
  • Dol-Y-Gaer - passing loop only.
  • Torpantau - current northern terminus

Locomotives

Builder Works No. Date Type Name or Number Status
Baldwin 15511 1897 2-6-2 1 Undergoing restoration in the workshops.
Baldwin 61269 1930 4-6-2 2 Operational. Originally built for the Eastern Province Cement Company in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Acquired by the Brecon Mountain Railway around 1990, and restored to full working order in 1997.[4]
Baldwin Original was No. 23 2-6-2 3 Original locomotive scrapped in 1936. A replica is being constructed in the workshops from the original drawings.
Baldwin Original was No. 10. 2-4-4T 4 Original locomotive scrapped in 1936. A replica is being constructed in the workshops from the original drawings.
Brecon Mountain Railway 001 1987 0-6-0DH Operational.
De Winton 1894 0-4-0VBT Pendyffryn On display but is in working order.
Henschel 29587 1957 2-8-2 146 (SAR NG15 Class) Stored out of use.
Hunslet Engine Co. 827 1903 0-4-0ST Sybil On display but is in working order.
Jung 1261 1908 0-6-2WT+T Graf Schwerin-Löwitz 99-3553 Operational.
Redstone 1905 0-4-0VBTT On display but is in working order.
Wickham 10943 1976 2w-2PMR Operational.
Kambarka TU7-1698 1981 4w-4wDH The loco came from a Peat Railway at Seda, in Latvia.[5]
Kambarka TU7E-2426[6] 1985 4w-4wDH The loco came from a Tatra Electric Railway, in Slovakia.[7]

Outside links

 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Brecon Mountain Railway)

References

  1. ↑ Jacobs (Ed.), Gerald (2005). Railway Track Diagrams Book 3: Western. Trackmaps, Bradford upon Avon. ISBN 0-9549866-1-X. 
  2. ↑ British Heritage Railways
  3. ↑ narrow-gauge-pleasure.co.uk
  4. ↑ http://www.breconmountainrailway.co.uk/locomotives.html
  5. ↑ http://www.philt.org.uk/Narrow-Gauge-Railways/Welsh-Narrow-Gauge/i-3tXQwNZ/
  6. ↑ uzkorozchodky.hys.cz
  7. ↑ http://www.zeleznicny.net/modules/xcgal/displayimage.php?pid=25932&album=162
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