No.1 SANTA TERESA originally built by Baldwin Works (Burnham Williams & Co) in 1897 as a metre gauge 2-6-0 for the Moygana Railway in Brazil. It was later sold to a sugar mill and converted to 2'-6" gauge. It was imported to the UK in 1990 and work began to convert it to 2'‑0" gauge, but this was only completed after its purchase by the BMR in 2002 who rebuilt it as a 2-6-2. In fact very little of the original loco remains, just the cylinders, main frame, valve gear and some of the running gear. New parts included boiler, smokebox, cab, wheels, axles, rear subframe, rear truck, front pilot and new tender (info from BMR website)
No.2 was built by Baldwin in 1930 for the Eastern Province Cement Co. of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where it worked trains of limestone on the branch line from the South African Railway's Avontuur Line at Chelsea to the works. It was based on the SAR's Class 10 4-6-2 locos supplied by Baldwin to the Avontuur Line in 1916. By 1973 it was normally spare to a diesel loco, but in September while the diesel loco was under repair, it was left in steam unattended and ran away, leaving the track at the end of a siding causing considerable damage. The cement company's insurers considered the loco a write off and it was sold to a scrap merchant, then purchased by Tony Hills and imported to the UK.
No.2 as originally imported into the UK in 1974 at Tony Hill's workshop in Llanberis. This was before Tony, in partnership with Peter Rampton, purchased the trackbed to build the Brecon Mountain Railway. The front truck was torn off in the accident and part of the rear pony truck appears in the bottom right of the photo. The loco was subsequently rebuilt at the BMR workshops.
New build No.3, a Forney type 2-4-4T in the workshops at Pant. This is being built from the original Baldwin drawings of Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad No.10, built in 1916 and scrapped when the railroad closed in 1936. Another long term project is to build a replica of SR&RL RR No.23 a large 2-6-2 tender loco, and some parts have been manufactured although the project is on hold until the 2-4-4T is finished.
This is railway modelling to 12" to a foot scale !
No.1698 is a Class Tu7 400hp Bo-Bo diesel hydraulic built by Kambarka Engineering of Russia in 1981, obtained from a peat railway in Latvia and regauged by the BMR from 750mm gauge. This is capable of deputising for the steam locos and taking a full train up to Torpantau. It proved invaluable during the hot spell earlier this year when fire risk prevented use of the steam locos. Apparently a total of 3,361 Class Tu7 and the upgraded Class Tu7A were constructed to various gauges and used throughout the former Soviet Union. Needless to say spares would be difficult to obtain from the builder at the present time, but the railway has acquired a similar loco from Slovakia as a source of spares.
PENDYFFRYN built by DeWinton in 1894 for the Pen-yr-Orsedd Slate Quarry, Nantlle. It was restored at the BMR workshops but is normally on display in the new museum at Aberystwyth on the Vale of Rheidol Railway. It returned to the BMR just for the weekend.
