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The Quarry Hunslet Web Site

Celebrating these unique steam locomotives
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Cloister is one of the celebrated "Quarry Hunslets" which combine good looks, mechanical toughness and haulage capacity. Built by the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds in 1891 for the Dinorwic Slate Quarry at Llanberis, she was later named after the winner of the 1893 Grand National. Her job involved shunting slate wagons on galleries halfway up a mountain and she survived this arduous work until 1962 when sold to Mr. R.C.U. Corbett. Later Mr. Corbett most generously gave her to the the Hampshire Narrow Gauge Railway Society.

Cloister saw a few years use after 1969 but boiler problems then resulted in her withdrawal. She was extensively overhauled over a long period, first at the Moors Valley Railway near Ringwood and later at Kew Bridge, where a new boiler was made for her. Since return to service in 1998, she has attracted much attention and has paid several, highly successful, visits to other railways.

Cloister at Kew Bridge Meseum, London
Photo credited to Hampshire Narrow Gauge Railway Society / A.J. Shepherd
 

 

 

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