Samuel Tanner

Samuel Tanner was born at Chunel (?) in Ireland in 1855, but by 1879 he was living in Pembroke with wife, Isabella, and daughter, Ellen. By 1881, aged 26, he had moved to Aberystwyth, where he was described as being a ‘railway manager’, and working for the Manchester and Milford Railway, where he may well have had contact with James Weeks Szlumper.

Tanner moved to the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways, in 1890, aged 35, as engineer/superintendent/secretary, but the papers reported he had been appointed to succeed Mr Livsey as General Manager. Within two years, he was styled as Secretary and Manager, his name appearing at the bottom of the timetable for that year.

Tanner remained at Dinas with the NWNGR until mid 1898 and he features in two photographs which are illustrated in MacKay's ‘Light Railways’ published in 1896. The most significant shows him sitting in the then recently delivered carriage that was to become known as ‘The Gladstone Car’! This, together with a composite, hauled by ‘Moel Tryfan’, formed Gladstone's special from Dinas to Rhyd Ddu in September 1892. A report in the Caernarfon & Denbigh Herald of 16th September reads — ‘The train steamed out of Dinas in charge of the energetic manager Mr S. Tanner who, a short time previously, had the honour of being introduced by Sir Edward Watkin to Mr and Mrs Gladstone.

Tanner's function was taken over in 1898 by Gowrie C. Aitchison, but alas to where Tanner moved is not known.

It is interesting to note that the 1892 timetable bearing Tanner's name offered First, Second and Third Class travel on all trains, whereas the 1877 timetable, promoting an initial service to (Old) Cwellyn, offered only First and Third, with ‘Parliamentary’ tickets available on the earliest and latest trains to/from Cwellyn and Bryngwyn. This has since been explained by the fact that the Cleminsons did not arrive until 1878, because there was no second class accommodation until these coaches came.