The ALCo Project

Posted on 27th January 2021

Whilst 2020 was a different year for us all here at the railway we are always thinking about the next project. During the first lockdown the thought process of that next new locomotive project was started. A private project based around another famous narrow gauge locomotive. Over the last few months work has started on the ALCo project, this locomotive will be based around the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways based Mountaineer. The design of this locomotive really lends itself to what we do here and we felt it would really fit in whilst at the same time bring something different to our locomotive fleet.

The ALCo will be a 2-6-2 tank locomotive based around Mountaineer which was one of 100 locomotives built by the Cooke works of the American Locomotive Company (ALCo) in 1916 for the British War Department Light Railways. These railways transported munitions and other supplies behind the trenches during The Great War before being preserved and offered to the Ffestiniog railway in the mid 1960’s.

Whilst our build is very much still in its infancy we will keep you updated about this exciting new project as progress is made, in the meantime we hope you enjoy some of the early images of the work we have completed so far alongside our initial basic design and an image of Mountaineer in action on the Ffestiniog railway.