Chorus
With four great wheels a-turning, and a big brass dome that shines
She hauled the slates and quarrymen on the four-foot Padarn Line
The Pride of Porth Dinorwic, the finest that you’ve seen
That grand old locomotive that they called the “Fire Queen”
Above the Peris Water, Elidir stands apart
They’re grinding down the mountain and tearing out its heart
Production rates are rising, with the contracts holding firm
We’ve more than we can handle here on the Griffith Ellis Term
“We’ll build ourselves a railroad,” Lord Assheton decreed
“And “Jenny Lind” and “Fire Queen” are the engines that we need
In the foundries down at Horlock’s, they’ll make the forges roar
We’ll send our slates to harbour on the Menai’s winding shore
With four by four transporters, they made that run in style
But tonnage for the Continent kept rising all the while
“We’re needing something stronger,” Lord Assheton did say
“And “Jenny Lind” and “Fire Queen” have surely had their day”
Then up spoke Lady Laura, the challenge in her eye
She loved the good old “Fire Queen” and would not let her die
So into preservation they laid that engine down
Beneath the Faenol levels up beside Llanberis town
Eighty years she slumbered, secure within those walls
Fifty more in Trust she graced the Penrhyn Castle halls
A pioneer of traction, the kind that showed the way
An engineering marvel and the Wonder of her day
Her story’s final chapter, as yet is just a dream
We’ll roll her out from Penrhyn, and bring her back to steam
Rebuild her and restore her, and make the mountains roar
And Lady Laura’s “Fire Queen” will ride the rails once more
Rob Griffith (October 2012)
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