Penmaenmawr & Welsh Granite Co.

Cover of a Company brochure from the 1920s

The Penmaenmawr & Welsh Granite Co. owned and operated a major granite quarry on the north Wales coast located between Conwy and Llanfairfechan. Granite axe-heads and other implements from Neolithic quarries at Penmaenmawr have been found throughout Britain.

Penmaenmawr & Welsh Granite Co.

Overview
Headquarters	Penmaenmawr
Locale	Wales
Dates of operation	1830s–1960s
Successor	Abandoned
Technical
Track gauge	3 ft (914 mm)

In the 1830s commercial granite quarries were opened on Penmaenmawr to meet the growing demand for granite setts. The granite was lowered from the quarry by self-acting inclines to the 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge tramway which ran to jetties from where the setts were loaded into ships. The standard gauge Chester to Holyhead railway reached Penmaenmawr in 1848, after which the majority of the quarry output was sent by rail.

The quarry and its internal narrow gauge railway continued to thrive during the nineteenth century. Production at the quarry continues in 2006, though the railway was replaced by trucks in the 1960s.

Locomotives

Name	Builder	Type	Date	Works number	Notes
Penmaen	De Winton	0-4-0VB	1878		The remains of the locomotive remain at the quarry
Llanfair	De Winton	0-4-0VB	1895		Preserved at the Welsh Highland Railway
Louisa	De Winton	0-4-0VB			Scrapped
Watkin	De Winton	0-4-0VB			Preserved at Penrhyn Castle Railway Museum
Stephen	Hunslet	0-4-0ST	1902	771	Scrapped by 1951
	Hunslet	0-4-0ST	1903	798	Scrapped

See also

• British industrial narrow gauge railways