Restoration
When the quarry at Dinorwic closed in 1969, Alice’s remains were still at the Australia gallery. The wheels and underparts had been salvaged and these were sold as spares for her sister locomotive Holy War.
Holy War was the last steam locomotive to work in a slate quarry, ending her working life in November 1967. Holy War was purchased, along with the spares from Alice by J. Marshfield Hutchings and went to Quainton Road, Buckinghamshire. In 1975 Holy War and the spares from Alice were purchased by the Rev. Alan Cliff, Vice-President of the Bala Lake Railway Society and brought to Llanuwchllyn, the headquarters of the Bala Lake Railway, and were leased to the railway.
In the meantime, Alice’s frames and tank were recovered and taken to the West Lancashire Light Railway at Hesketh Bank, near Preston. In 1977 these remains were acquired jointly by Alan Cliff and George Barnes, who was then the General Manager and Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Bala Lake Railway. Their acquisition meant that what remained of Alice was together again.
The Bala Lake Railway was loaned the parts of Alice and announced that it intended to rebuild the locomotive as an 0-4-2 tender locomotive. However, many other priorities made that intention impossible, although some work was done on the frames.
In 1987, Chris Scott, then a Bala Lake Railway volunteer, bought the remains from Alan Cliff. The railway company had decided that it could not pursue the restoration, although it listed Alice as in their stock from 1977. Alan Cliff, who had been taken ill at the beginning of 1987 and forced to take early retirement, was in no position to spearhead a campaign to restore Alice, so when Scott offered to purchase Alice and seek to restore her, Alan and the Bala Lake Railway were delighted. The remains of the locomotive were later moved to Scott's garage.
Read more about this topic: Alice (locomotive)
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