In October 2023 the Talyllyn Railway Young Members Group announced one of their biggest projects to date, a complete replica of the Gunpowder Van once used by the Railway – with grant funding of £5000 being awarded to the Group by Mantell Gwynedd as part of their Gwynedd Youth Volunteering Grant scheme.
The original waggon was believed to have been built for the opening of the Railway’s slate traffic in 1864/65 to transport gunpowder from King’s Wharf in Tywyn to the Bryneglwys Quarry above Abergynolwyn for use in slate blasting. By 1935 it had fallen out of use and the body, separated from it’s underframe, became a sand store at Pendre locomotive shed. This was a role it would fulfill until the mid-1960s when it finally succumbed to the rust and was sadly junked.
It is believed that there was only one van of this type on the Railway so when the opportunity for funding presented itself the YMG committee seized the opportunity to reinstate a missing link in the Talyllyn Railway’s rich heritage and pre-preservation history. The project’s aims also neatly tie into the Slate Landscape of North West Wales World Heritage Site of which the Railway, Abergynolwyn Village and Bryneglwys Slate Quarry are key components of. The replica waggon will help to further interpret the slate history of the quarry, accompanied by 3 wooden barrels to show how the gunpowder was loaded and transported.
The project has been entirely led by the YMG and majority of the work completed by them, with help from staff in Pendre works – with apprentices being utilised to further their learning and keep the project youth focused. While being a very heritage focused project some of the techniques utilised were some of the most up to date, with 3D CAD being utilised by a Young Member to design the wagon based on the very few photographs alongside no original measurements or drawings – this CAD was then directly utilised for laser cutting the metal bodywork. The wooden underframe was constructed using techniques as close to the original construction methods as possible, bringing together modern innovation and heritage techniques to revive a lost piece of history. We also cannot go without thanking Model Engineers Laser and the Ffestiniog Railway’s Carriage Works for their assistance in laser cutting the metal bodywork and allowing access to woodworking machines to cut the frame timbers down to size respectively.
In total over 50 individuals volunteered and worked on the project, with 37 being from within the Young Members Group!
On the 18th August 2025 the Van was officially unveiled at Tywyn Wharf station to a crowd on the eve of its first trip up the Railway as part of the Young Members Day where as many operational roles as possible are fulfilled by members of the Group. It has since taken part in the Railway’s Heritage Weekend event on the 13th and 14th September taking another trip up the Railway and standing on display outside the original Gunpowder Store at Tywyn Wharf station.
An amazing amount of skills were learnt by the YMG to bring this van back to life, skills which will hopefully be utilised again in the future – with the completion of the Gunpowder Van there now only remains one pre-preservation waggon type unrepresented on the Railway…
Watch this space!
