The major survivor of the Welsh Highland Railway, the locomotive 'Russell' is named after the former Receiver of the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways, James Cholmeley Russell. Somewhat ironically, the Welsh Highland's locomotive commemorates an individual who was partly responsible for the delay in the completion of the various projects that intended to connect Porthmadog with Beddgelert and beyond.
Russell was born in 1841, the eldest son of James Russell, Q.C. and had one younger brother and five sisters He was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford and called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1862, being an Examiner at the High Court for several years. Russell married Eleanor and had one daughter, Margaret, born in 1894. Russell used a London address, 86 Queens Gate, which may have been his London house.
Russell first appears in the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways story when it appears that he completed the purchase of the locomotives and rolling stock ordered by Hugh Beaver Roberts before he repudiated his lease. The railway made an agreement with Russell for rolling stock hire in November 1876, two years later Russell took the railway to court for non-payment of hire charges. Russell made an agreement dated December 1878 with the newly incorporated 'Moel Tryfan Rolling Stock Co Ltd.' of which he was also a subscriber (he held five times as many shares as any of the other subscribers), for the new company to purchase the locomotives and rolling stock that he then owned. Russell also assigned his debt to the new company, but with the railway being in no position to pay, the company lodged a petition in the Chancery Division against the railway; following this, Russell was appointed as Receiver to the railway company on December 13th 1878, subsequently becoming Chairman of the railway company.
Russell became part of another grand railway scheme in 1880 when he became manager of the Manchester & Milford Railway (which never reached either of the locations in its title, being restricted to a line between Strata Florida and Pencader, Mid Wales).
On 19th June 1882, a £330 mortgage of the Croesor Tramway was given to Russell, taking the Croesor Tramway to the limits of its borrowing. It has been suggested that this was an attempt to gain control of the tramway by Russell, by this time he already held the reigns of the northern end of Spooner's grand plan. The same year Mary Elizabeth Littledale put the tramway into receivership stifling any immediate attempts to expand the tramway in the direction of Beddgelert.
On 31st July 1889, The Moel Tryfan Rolling Stock Co Ltd. ceased to carry on business as its objects had been fulfilled, the NWNGR finally paying off its debts to the company following an issue of Debenture shares.
James Boyd regards Russell as a block to the building of the missing link between Rhyd Ddu and the Croesor Tramway. The Light Railway Commissioners reported in 1900 that they had rejected the 1897 and 1898 schemes because of the difficulties in acquiring the Croesor Tramway 'a disused mineral line'! At this time the control of both the NWNGR and the Croesor Tramway were effectively in the hands of the same man, did he feel that once the lines were linked he would lose control of them?
Russell's links with Sir James Szlumper on the Manchester & Milford Railway led to closer ties. Szlumper later became civil engineer to the NWNGR and in 1906 became a director. Russell and Szlumper were two of the proposers of the Vale of Rheidol Light Railway at Aberystwyth (originally proposed by the Manchester & Milford Railway), although Russell resigned from the VofR project in its infancy in 1899.
Gowrie Aitchison replaced Russell as Receiver of the NWNGR on January 15th 1912 and Russell subsequently died on August 29th 1912 in Haslemere, Surrey and is buried at Merrow, near Guildford. He left an estate valued at £166,000 which was a considerable sum of money at the time.
Boyd J.I.C. - Narrow Gauge Railways In South Caernarvonshire, Volume 1, Oakwood Press 1988
Booker N. - Article in Festiniog Heritage Group Journal No 48, Winter 1996/7