‘The Earl’ was the first new locomotive to be constructed at Boston Lodge in the preservation era. Starting in 1972, she was completed and entered passenger service in 1979 and was built to replace ‘Livingston Thompson’, which is now displayed at the National Railway Museum York as a static exhibit.

The locomotive is a ‘Double Fairlie’, although it looks quite different to the railway’s two other locos of this type (‘Merddin Emrys’ and ‘David Lloyd George’) as she was built to a more ‘modern’ style with sloping tanks. A ‘Double Fairlie’ is a steam locomotive built to the patent design of Robert Francis Fairlie using two articulated power bogies, one at each end of the engine. The Ffestiniog Double Fairlies are all of a 0-4-4-0 wheel arrangement.

This unusual design created powerful locomotives that could travel around tight curves at a decent speed, meaning that the expensive previous plans to double the track were unnecessary.

Recently, she has been converted to burn coal rather than oil, the conversion necessary to take advantage of the now significant difference in the prices of oil and coal.
 

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Earl Of Merioneth stands at Harbour Station in 1980.