The Bala Lake Railway in Wales has announced that, all being well, some of the trains at its August Steam Gala will be hauled by Bagnall locomotive ‘Dorothy’, which has recently been overhauled.

The award-winning heritage railway will be hosting the Gala on Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the upcoming Bank Holiday weekend.

Other locomotives running on the day include Maid Marian (which itself returned to service after an overhaul eight years ago), Terminator, Hugh Napier, Alice and Holy War.

The timetable is available on the Railway’s website.

W.G. Bagnall of Stafford built Dorothy in 1899, giving it works number 1568. It was the last of three similar steam locomotives that Bagnall supplied to Greaves Llechwedd Slate Mines in Blaenau Ffestiniog.

The loco has recently been rebuilt in Llanuwchllyn works, with the work completed earlier this month.

For many years, it was thought that Dorothy had been broken up to provide parts for ‘The Eclipse’, which worked at the same quarry and is now on static display at the Statfold Barn Railway in Staffordshire.

However, it turned out that Dorothy was stripped down, but the work did not progress further, and so Dorothy survived, albeit in a state of dismantlement!.

Mr R.P.Morris purchased Dorothy’s remains from the quarry in 1972, and placed them on a wagon in the Gloddfa Ganol Collection. The loco went through various changes of ownership, with work being carried out to restore it.

Various new parts were manufactured from the plans, including boiler, wheelsets, cylinders, motion work and blast pipe. However, the project slowed and stopped.

After a period of inactivity, owners the Selway family chose the Bala Lake Railway as the most suitable location for Dorothy to be restored and returned to service.

This image of Maid Marian and Alice on the Bala Lake Railway is available from the RailAdvent online shop as a print and a mousemat.

The Bala Lake Railway will run several more special events this year, including a model railway show and Santa Specials.