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Pen-yr-Orsedd

"Blondin" aerial cableways at Pen-yr-Orsedd in 2002
Pen-yr-Orsedd Location inGwynedd
Location
Location	nearNantlle
County	Carnarvonshire (nowGwynedd)
Country	Wales,UK
Coordinates	53°3′38″N4°13′37″W / 53.06056°N 4.22694°W /53.06056; -4.22694 SH 508 538
Production
Products	Slate
Type	Quarry
History
Closed	1979 (1979)
Tramways
History
Opened	1862
Closed	1979
Technical
Track gauge	2 ft (610 mm); 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)

Pen-yr-Orsedd quarry was aslate quarry in theNantlle Valley inNorth Wales. It was one of the last slate quarries operating in North Wales and the last operating in theNantlle Valley area, finally closing in 1979.

Pen-yr-Orsedd opened in 1816, owned by William Turner who was also the owner of the nearbyDorothea quarry and the Diphwys Casson quarry inBlaenau Ffestiniog. It was acquired on 1854 by John Lloyd Jones who sold it on to the Darbishire Company, owners of thePenmaenmawr granite quarries, in 1862. The new owners invested £20,000 (equivalent to £1,965,208 in 2016) to expand the quarry, though with limited results; by 1871 the quarry was producing just 500 tons per year. William Darbishire took over direct management of the quarry that year and by 1882 had raised production to almost 8,000 tons.^[1]

Pen-yr-Orsedd was one of the major slate producers of theNantlle Valley. It was the last of the Nantlle quarries to commercially produce slate, closing in 1979.

Railway enthusiast Rich Morris began collecting narrow gauge rolling stock in 1963,^[2] storing many at his home in Longfield in Kent.^[3] As the collection grew he sought a more permanent arrangement and in 1976, he came to an agreement with the Festiniog Slate Group to move many of his locomotives to Pen-yr-Orsedd, where he planned to set up a museum to exhibit his collection and tell the story of narrow gaugeindustrial railways.^[2]

With the closure of Pen-yr-Orsedd, The Festiniog Group offered Morris space for his collection at their largest quarry,Oakeley. Morris' collection was moved there in May 1978. Further collections were brought to Oakeley and theNarrow Gauge Railway Centre was opened in theGloddfa Ganol tourist attraction.

In 1862 the quarry was connected to theNantlle Railway, with3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)narrow gauge lines extended to all but the highest levels of the quarry. Most levels of the quarry had both3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge and2 ft (610 mm) gauge trackwork, many withmixed gauge tracks. The Nantlle Railway connection was used up until 1963, while the internal2 ft (610 mm) gauge lines continued in limited use until the end of quarrying.

• British narrow gauge slate railways

• Boyd, James I.C. (1990).Narrow Gauge Railways in North Caernarvonshire, Volume 1: The West (2nd. ed.). The Oakwood Press.ISBN 0-85361-273-0.

• Llanllyfni
• Slate mines in Gwynedd
• 1979 disestablishments in Wales
• Railway inclines in Wales
• Industrial railways in Wales
• Railway lines opened in 1862
• 2 ft gauge railways in Wales
• 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in Wales
• Nantlle Valley

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