Roundhouse Victoria, 1982-1984

Victoria was the first locomotive offered by Roundhouse.

Photograph courtesy Roundhouse Engineering.

The following information is provided by Sam Evans:

"VICTORIA is an early single slide valve-cylindered product by Roundhouse Engineering; alcohol-fired, with manual control and slip eccentrics, she performs better than her prototype did. According to Roger Loxley, 14 of her type were made before 'Lady Anne'/'Dylan' became Roundhouse's 'bread & butter' locos."

"The loco is a semi-scale model of one built for the short-lived (3 years) 2' 3" gauge Plynlimon & Hafan Tramway in Mid-Wales, by Messrs John Slee & Co of Warrington. It was the first, and last, railway loco to be constructed by the firm, who normally specialised in steam cranes, steam capstans etc. Her performance was not helped by her novel design, including no less than four cylinders, and a vertical boiler of unknown type (possibly a form of Cochran boiler according to latest thoughts). In the event the boiler could not supply adequate amounts of steam to all the cylinders and two were disconnected. Even so 'Victoria' was not a success, and you may ask why the railway purchased her until you find that one of the Directors was also a director of Messrs John Slee..... "

"Here in Aberystwyth we are very close to the real Victoria's former stamping-ground, the remarkably unsuccessful Plynlimon & Hafan Tramway, and in fact last Saturday a couple of us explored by car the part of the route from Talybont to the upper end in the hills near Nant-y-Moch reservoir. Quite wild and spectacular scenery."

"There's a bit about the line in J.I.C. Boyd's 'Narrow Gauge Railways in Mid Wales' (Oakwood Press). In case you haven't got that, it was a 2'3" gauge line (same as Talyllyn and Corris) between Llanfihangel (later Llandre) station on the Machynlleth-Aberystwyth line to a granite sett quarry in the Plynlimon range. It only ran for 18 months or so in the late 1890s. Victoria (I can't remember offhand who built her) was a truly unsuccessful locomotive which doesn't seem to have done much work at all. The other loco on the line was a Bagnall 2-4-0T 'Talybont' originally built for use in Brazil but not delivered. On closure of the line, 'Talybont' was regauged to 1'11.5" and used on the construction of the Vale of Rheidol, becoming the VoR's 'Rheidol' (in which guise Archangel modelled her.)"