Fairlie's Patent

Of all the North Wales narrow gauge lines I think that the Ffestiniog is easily my favourite. It climbs about twenty miles from the coast at Porthmadog up to the slate quarrying area of Blaenau Ffestiniog, and it was one of the early narrow gauge lines to be taken over by preservationists.

The Ffestiniog is a really serious railway - a busy heavily graded main line with long trains and some powerful locomotives. Probably the most interesting are the 'Fairlie Patents'.

This one is named 'David Lloyd George' after the famous Liberal Prime Minister. As you can see the really curious thing about Fairlies is that they are a kind of 'Siamese twin' locomotive - in effect two identical locomotives back to back. This one is an 0-4-4-0 but in France I think some 0-6-6-0's were built and I have a vague recollection the principle was once used in the USA too.

It is actually only one firebox in the boiler. In the cab in the middle the driver stands on one side of the engine and the fireman on the other firing from the side. Despite having inspected this arrangement close up it still confuses the heck out of me! And the sight of the 'same locomotive' pointing in two directions at once is amusing. A very pretty engine though eh?