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"Tom Rolt" Locomotive

SH5800 : Tom Rolt Takes Water, Tywyn, Gwynedd SH5800 : Tom Rolt in the Loop, Tywyn, Gwynedd SH5800 : 'Tom Rolt' at Tywyn SH5800 : 'Tom Rolt' at Tywyn

This locomotive is named after Tom Rolt, a founder member of the Preservation Society, and who served as the railway's General Manger in the first two years of operation in 1951 and 1952. The locomotive was built in 1948 for the Irish Peat Board's railway system.

Tom Rolt's book "Railway Adventure" describes how he came to help preserve this railway, with further information in "Landscape with Figures", the third volume of his autobiography. He might well be considered the "Father" of railway preservation.

Prior to railway restoration he had also been a founder member of the Inland Waterways Association, which campaigned (and still does) for the preservation and use of our navigable waterways.