Atomic Systems

Here's a screenshot of velinheli so far

you'll have to click on the link cant get the img thingy to work


http://uk.photos.yahoo.com/bc/timothy_e ... %26.view=t

Unfortunately not! No picture arrived here....

John

What's a 'velinheli' .... sounds interesting

Looks like a cabless quarry Hunslett to me - in bright red - very nice!

Forgot I asked this.

Thanks Martin.

Thought it was somewhere in Norway

Not only is it a Quarry Hunslet, it is also the first of the famous Alice class delivered, and a good looking model it is too.

David

Wow the first Dinowic Hunslet... Why were they named the Alice class and not the Velinhelli class? Looking good, if you want I can email all of the livery information to you which I have in a book somewhere. All the little variations like (i think) Michael (port class) being delivered in green etc etc....

Well done I look forward to driving it round my Quarry.

Christian

I think that Alice was the name of one of the daughters of the quarry owner. I seem to remember reading that somewhere, or maybe my father told me.

David

Velinheli's name is derived from the Welsh "Y Felin Heli" which means "The Salt Water Mill". This is the local name for Port Dinorwic.

The class was apparently not named after Velinheli as this may have caused confusion with the Port Dinorwic organisation which was separate from the quarry organisation for which the loco was built. Therefore, they named the class after the second loco "Alice" (which was later re-named "King of the Scarlets")

Look forward to trying the loco.

Cheers

Kevin

Hi

I've stayed at 'Y Felin Heli', and i've looked at where the line from the quarry goes under the main road. There's still a clearly defined path along some of the line.

Chris

Was that on the old 4ft Dinorwic main line? Which ran from Gil Fach Ddu down to the Port? Of course there was also the 4ft loco Velinhelli... The Llanberis lake railway of course now running along a couple of miles of the old 4ft track bed. Along Llyn Padarn. Does any one know if the plans to extend to the SMR terminus went through?

Christian

pitleyfalley wrote:The Llanberis lake railway of course now running along a couple of miles of the old 4ft track bed. Along Llyn Padarn. Does any one know if the plans to extend to the SMR terminus went through?

Christian

Construction is already under way, the route round the slate museum was pegged out months ago. A new bridge is needed to cross the river, and the terminus is between the SMR & the Electric Mountain Visitor centre by the main road.

Ian

Hi Christian

I *Think* it was the 4ft 'mainline', as it was quite wide, more so than what you would expect for a narrower line. The line at the bridge is very leafy as well, the trees forming a 'tunnel' along the trackbed.

Chris

Excellent, Both Dinorwic and Penrhyn had thier own internal railway systems. Dinorwic had the Quarries leading down to Gil Fach Ddu (Lanberis Lake Terminus) which then lead onto the 4ft Padarn mainline, with the three Hunslet tank engines, Amalthea, Dinorwic and Velinhelli and the wagons went down to the port on the transporter wagons, 4 wagons to a transporter.

Penrhyn had the internal system then leading to the Penrhyn mainline which was run by Linda, Blanche and Charles. Running down through Bethesda.

I believe Dinorwic also had another 2ft gauge tramway which linked Gil Fach Ddu to the quarries. This was run by either Sybil or Cackler... 2 of the larger 2ft engines (neither hunslets) and the Quarries were left to the likes of the Alice and Port classes and then one offs like Kegin, Glyder (both Andrew Barclays) All in all i believe there were about 100 'Quarry' hunslets built of which 20 or so surivive.

Each engine would be allocated to a gallery level and would spend most of its life thier, only coming down for overhaul at the workshops. They were moved up and down on the vertical inclines! Somewhere I have a book with a picture of 'Michael' coming down one of them on the rope!

Velinhelli now has a new .eng file which I have mailed to Tim Elsby, and I have begun work on Lady Madcap and Maid Marian, the only other two Dinorwics with domed boilers! The engine really is realistic and well worth the download when it comes out!

Just a little background info on the Quarries which I thought people might find usefull!

Christian

The line to Port Dinorwic from the quarries was worked by Cackler and a sister engine Jerry M as far as I recall. They were both Hunslets and were bigger than the Hunslets that worked in the galleries. Sybil, a Bagnall, deputised if the Hunslets were unavailable.
Cegin and Glyder can be described as sister engines, the difference between the two being that Cegin had no back to her cab whereas Glyder did