Join us in a visual tour of the preserved maintenance facility of the famous and now closed Dinorwig Slate Quarry at the Welsh mountain town of Llanberis.
This film does not focus on railways but instead is a look at the vast multi-disciplinary workshops that existed to keep Dinorwig operational. It included everything from a sawmill to metal shops, a foundry, a pattern making shop, blacksmith shops and carpentry shops.
Likely originally powered by a stationary steam engine, in 1870 a huge overshot water wheel was erected to power the line shafts that kept all the machinery going until 1925 when the wheel was retired and replaced by a Pelton wheel. Evidence of steam power in the shops still exists in the form a steam whistle on one outside wall and a steam powered hoisting mechanism .
Before I stumbled upon the giant water wheel in a separate building bay, I kept a sharp eye out for a stationary steam plant which I felt must be there somewhere[and which I never found]. Each shop was connected to the shops on either side of it by the line shafts passing through the walls. The shops were laid out in a U formation and the line shafts in the three bays were connected by large bevel gears in the corners.
The sheer enormity of the open air mining works is hard to visualize without being there. In the heyday of its operations the quarry covered around 700 acres of incredibly rugged and dangerously steep mountain sides. The mountain top and cliff sides are littered with industrial artifacts many of which are associated with moving slate around either horizontally along the slopes or vertically down to the railway lines.
Dinorwig operated from around 1787 up until its closing in July 1959. Some 22 small 1 foot 10 ¾” narrow gauge steam locomotives were used within the quarry pits on around 75 miles of track and larger locomotives were used to move finished slates to the docks at Porth Dinorwig.
Many of the smaller engines were Alice class Hunslets. Some of these survived into the mid 1900’s and are preserved in heritage railways in the UK.
More great images, see links below:
Dave Sallery on Flickr and penmorfa.com
Huntley Film Archives showing Dinorwig’s operations circa 1930
Jason Jones Photography
I apologize for the narration audio quality which is very slightly sketchy at times. This is the first time using a new audio recorder for this. I am less than enthusiastic about its performance so far.
Timeline:
00:00 - Intro
00:22 - Map North Wales & Llanberis
00:44 - Plan view of quarry showing tracks & tramways
01:03 - Hunslet steam locos
01:37 - Work yards outside of shops
04:31 - Interior of shops
08:46 - 80 HP water wheel
09:14 - Water wheel’s gear ring
09:44 - Pelton turbine
09:52 - Additional photos of interior of shops
11:54 - Video of water wheel turning inside building
14:02 - Dinorwig Quarry including narrow gauge roadbeds paths and inclined tramways
Anyone who is visiting north Wales and who likes vintage machinery and industrial heritage would do well to devote a day to visiting Dinorwig. It is truly amazing.
Map imagery courtesy: © OpenStreetMaps contributors
Map data is available under Open Database License
See openstreetmap.org/copyright
Photo of Vivian transporter incline tramway is the property of Martin Bodman and is licensed for reuse under Creative Commons attribution.
Photo of Hunslet Louisa is in the public domain.
1895 photo of water wheel is the property of Gwynedd Archive Service.
Other three Hunslet photos are the property of Huntley Archives.
All other content : © W. Smith & Frog and Flange Video
This video and the Frog & Flange Video channel and all the materials contained within it are protected by intellectual property right laws. All the materials and content include, but are not limited to, the design, appearance, images, logos, and any other intellectual property. All the materials contained within this website is either owned by us, licensed to us or we are entitled to use it. All such rights are reserved. You must not make any use of the above without express written permission.
AudioJungle License: d6a5ad64-dc9b-49be-b008-04f70cc435ef
Sounddogs License: 02250-189369
FreeSound.org: 146326
Sounds Majestic License: All source material used on this channel [Sounds Majestic] is royalty free for commercial use and is used with permission. All Sounds compiled, adjusted and remixed by Sounds Majestic.
References & Links
Dinorwig Quarry in Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwi...
Dave Sallery on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/penmorf...
Huntley Film Archives - Dinorwig operations 1930’s: www.huntleyarchives.com
• Dinorwic Slate Quarrie...
• Video
Jason Jones Photography:
• The Dinorwig Slate Quarry
Dinorwig water wheel photo:
www.aditnow.co.uk/Photo/Water...