#Rail&Sail – A Welsh steam-engine still operating after 150 years on the Ffestiniog Railway in Snowdonia, crossed the Irish Sea yesterday and is to be put on display in Dublin's Heuston Station as part of the Gathering Ireland 2013, writes Jehan Ashmore.

The steam-engine 'Princess' built in 1868 comes only 30 years after Stephenson's Rocket.

The important cargo was shipped on board the Stena Adventurer on the Holyhead-Dublin Port route.

Princess is owned by the Ffestiniog Railway, the first narrow gauge railway in the world to use steam engines. The steam-locomotive was used to haul empty slate wagons between Porthmadog Harbour and the slate-quarrying town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, a distance of 13.5 miles.

The steam locomotive is only one of two in regular use out of a total of six built by George England of London and they represent the oldest surviving narrow gauge locomotives in the world.

The railway which was built with Irish investment all those year ago led to the apt invitation by Irish Rail in requesting the Ffestiniog Railway to display the restored Princess, which will be unveiled tomorrow in Heuston Station.

For the next six weeks commuters and visitors alike can view Princess in the railway station concourse so that so all can see  the steam-locomotive in all her glory.