Quarry Hunslet 0-4-0 Tank 'Alice' Dinorwic Quarry Red

Quarry Hunslet Steam Locomotive ‘Alice’ in Dinorwic Quarry Red livery. Barely larger than a 9V battery, this diminutive model still packs a punch with its diecast boiler and running plate, accompanied by a wealth of separately fitted details including handrails, valves, springs, brake shoes and cab controls. The 0-4-0ST wheel formation is faithfully modelled, with authentically-profiled wheels running in metal bearings ensuring smooth running, powered by a coreless motor with flywheel, and with a 6 Pin DCC decoder socket for those wishing to use the models with a DCC system. NEM coupling pockets feature at both ends, into which standard OO9 scale couplings are fitted.

MODEL FEATURES:

• Bachmann Narrow Gauge OO9 Scale
• Era 2
• Pristine Dinorwic Quarry Red livery
• Named ‘Alice’
• Etched Name Plates and Works Plates Included
• NEM Coupling Pockets
• Powerful Coreless Motor and Flywheel
• Detailed and decorated cab interior
• Equipped with a 6 Pin (Micro) DCC Decoder Socket 
• Length 58mm (over couplings)

DETAIL VARIATIONS SPECIFIC TO THIS MODEL

• Open Cab
• Dumb Buffers (two lengths supplied)
• Angled Frames
• Backhead Injectors
• Ramsbottom Safety Valves
• Riveted Water Tank
• Wrap Around Tank Handrail
• Tank-mounted Tool Rests
• Single Smokebox-mounted Lubricator
• Blower supply fitted to left hand side of locomotive

QUARRY HUNSLET ‘ALICE’ HISTORY

The Quarry Hunslet locomotives were built by the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds. Rather than denoting a single design, the term Quarry Hunslet refers to several different locomotive types, each built to a similar design, but with specifics suited to their intended use. The first Quarry Hunslets were the Penrhyn Port Class, built for shunting duties at Port Penrhyn, the coastal port of Penrhyn Quarry – once the largest slate quarry in the world. These locomotives sported a 4ft wheelbase and the first example was delivered in 1883.

In 1886 the nearby Dinorwic Quarry, Wales’s second largest slate quarry, took delivery of its first Quarry Hunslet, named ‘Velinheli’. Smaller than the Penrhyn locos with a wheelbase of just 3ft 3in, the second Dinorwic loco, delivered in 1889 and originally named ‘Alice’, would lend its name to the locomotive type and by 1904 eleven Alice Class Quarry Hunslets had been delivered to the Dinorwic Quarry. All were built to fundamentally the same design, although details inevitably changed over the years, but a notable feature of the Alice Class locos was the angled frames and resulting shallow bufferbeams at the front and rear. At the quarry the locomotives were moved between the various galleries and to and from works via the steep inclined planes – straight frames would bottom out on these steep inclines, a problem avoided by building the locos with angled frames.

Five similar locomotives were built for use at Port Dinorwic during the same period, these shared much the same design as the Alice Class locos but had straight frames which resulted in them sporting much deeper bufferbeams. The Alice Class also provided the blueprint for six more engines which were built for smaller concerns; the Pen-Yr-Orsedd Quarry which took three, Moel Tryfan Quarry had two, and a single example was delivered to the Dorothea Quarry. The Penrhyn Quarry placed orders for four of these smaller 3ft 3in. wheelbase locomotives too – these became known as the Penrhyn Small Quarry Class to avoid any association with their rivals the Dinorwic Quarry. Penrhyn Quarry would later order another six Quarry Hunslets, but these reverted to the 4ft wheelbase used on the Penrhyn Port Class locos; whilst very similar in design, this final batch of Quarry Hunslets were different enough to be known instead as the Penrhyn Large Quarry Class.

The name ‘Alice’ was carried by two of the Alice Class Quarry Hunslets that were built for the Dinorwic Quarry. The first was works number 492 of 1889, the second locomotive to be delivered after ‘Velinheli’. Around 1908 the 1889-built locomotive was renamed ‘King of the Scarlets’. The second ‘Alice’, and the locomotive depicted by this Bachmann Narrow Gauge model, was the eighth of its type, built in 1902 as works number 780 and identified simply as No. 4 upon delivery, but the name ‘Alice’ was applied soon after.

Working on various levels at Dinorwic Quarry, by 1945 ‘Alice’ had moved up to the Australia level some 1,800 feet above sea level where she remained for the rest of her working life – being recorded as out of service in 1960. Thereafter ‘Alice’ was plundered for parts to keep other locomotives working, and she was left abandoned in her shed on Australia level as the quarry closed in 1969. The wheels and various other parts from ‘Alice’ were purchased by the new owner of ‘Holy War’, primarily as a source of spares, and like ‘Holy War’, ‘Alice’ was moved first to Quainton Road and then to the Bala Lake Railway. Meanwhile, the locomotive’s frames and tank had been recovered and taken to a site near Preston, these were later sold and moved to the Bala Lake Railway so that what remained of ‘Alice’ was together again.

The remains of ‘Alice’ were sold to Chris Scott in 1987 who moved the parts to his garage and by 1994 ‘Alice’ had been restored and returned to steam at the Ffestiniog Railway. A new boiler had been constructed which was financed by the Leighton Buzzard Railway and after returning to steam, ‘Alice’ moved there, calling the Bedfordshire line home until 2003 when she moved back to the Bala Lake Railway. Purchased by Julian Birley, Chairman of the Bala Lake Railway Trust, in 2010, her future was secured and ‘Alice’ now resides at the North Wales line alongside three other Alice Class Quarry Hunslets; ‘George B’, ‘Holy War’ and ‘Maid Marian’, Penrhyn Port Class ‘Winifred’ and Penrhyn Small Quarry Class ‘Nesta’.