In my 2001 update to the Appendix from ‘Dyffryn Nantlle – a landscape of neglect’ (detailing the preserved steam locomotives of Dyffryn Nantlle) I described Gelli as consisting of the frame, tank and wheelsets – now in private storage in Berkshire. I subsequently received a fascinating and informative letter from Talysarn historian Dr. Gwynfor Pierce Jones which provides an interesting account of the rescue of the frame and tank, and which makes it clear that it is only the frame which belonged to Gelli. I am most grateful for Dr. PJ’s account which I reproduce below.

Alan Carr, 2002

“My friend and quarryman Brinley Jones found the chassis in use as girders in a disused loco shed at Pen-yr-Orsedd and brought me in to identify it. From rivet counts, comparison with archive photos proved its provenance. Unfortunately, there were no other parts. In order to protect the chassis in case it might be reused we approached the quarry management and were given it as a present.

The next problem was what to do with it. The only home we could find was with my friend Francis Stapleton who temporarily found somewhere to keep it at Gilfach Ddu. Another friend, Gwynne Williams (coal merchant of Talysarn) gave us free transport from Nantlle to Llanberis. Francis purchased some wheels from somewhere but that’s as far as it got.

The tank is one I identified at New Penybryn as being of loco origin, with much De Winton features. It had been ‘lately’ (i.e. to 1932) in use as a storage tank for the Blondin winder boiler. Using my (now deceased) trusty little 4 x 4 Fiat Panda, Francis’ very big trailer and Brinley’s strength we rescued this in what was a very frightening trip down the grassy track out of the quarry, heading towards Old Penybryn pit on slippery swarth without hope of controlling the descent (the tank and trailer being too heavy). We even had to use the old ‘loco’ trick of hauling the trailer on a long length of rope on the way up as the Fiat could only grip on the slate at the top of the hill, not on the grass half way up!

Anyway, this tank is too big for Gelli’s frames (i.e. the ‘Chaloner’ type) and I think it was ex-Glyn (or Glynne?) from Dorothea, an earlier loco of the ‘Harriet / Peris’ type. Its reuse at Penybryn as a stationary tank (minus the rest of the loco) was probably post-1902, to fit in with the Blondin date and after the loco had disappeared from Dorothea (last heard of as disused, in need of extensive repair, in 1891). Note that it was not of Penybryn origin as the whole site had been cleared out in a 1892 dispersal auction, which saw Rhymney sold to Pen-yr-Orsedd (Chaloner having gone there in an earlier dispersal sale in 1888). “