Ffestiniog Railway No. 1 to 4 “Small England Class”

In 1863 and 1864 the Ffestiniog Railway received four small tank locomotives with an additional tender from George England. Up until this point, the line had been operated downhill by gravity and uphill by horses. Although initially locomotives were to be built with three driving axles, a design with only two driving axles was finally chosen. These initially had side tanks and later received a saddle tank. To distinguish them from the locomotives delivered by the same manufacturer in 1867, these are referred to as the “Small England Class”. Of these four locomotives, three are still preserved today, two of which are operational. A replica of the “Mountaineer” scrapped in 1879 is being built since 2020.