The Ffestiniog Railway's Hunslet 2-4-0ST+T Blanche (built 1893) was moved
to WHR (Caernarfon) in Spring 1999 for use on lighter trains, when traffic did
not justify use of a Garratt on the Caernarfon-Dinas services of the time. The
transfer brought Blanche closer than before to her original home on the
former Penrhyn Quarry Railway, which ran down to the Menai Strait at Porth Penrhyn,
ten miles to the North-East of Caernarfon. The loco as it exists today has another
link with Dinas; the axle and wheels of the pony truck started life under NWNGR/WHR
loco Moel
Tryfan (link to page at WHR [Porthmadog] site), most of whose remains
were sadly scrapped at the FR in 1954.
The views below show (from left to right), Blanche climbing the bank at Bryn Seiont, approaching Bontnewydd Viaduct, and shunting coaches into Dinas Carriage Shed at the end of the day. The clean exhaust from the oil-fired loco belies how hard Blanche is working on the steep WHR (Caernarfon) gradients, even with just three coaches.
The two pictures below by Clive Briscoe show Blanche at Caernarfon in July 1999.
Having, as it proved, worked most of the 1999 trains, Blanche stayed on at Dinas for winter maintenance, but she was moved back to Boston Lodge on the FR for replacement of life-expired boiler flue tubes and other boiler work, after which the loco returned to service on FR trains, her place at Dinas being taken by Mountaineer.
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