Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway locomotives
Encyclopedia
This article gives details of the locomotives used on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway
Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway
The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway is a minimum gauge heritage railway in Cumbria, England. The line runs from Ravenglass to Dalegarth Station near Boot in the valley of Eskdale, in the Lake District...

, a 15 inches (381 mm) narrow gauge preserved railway line running for 7 miles (11.3 km) from Ravenglass
Ravenglass
Ravenglass is a small coastal village and natural harbour in Cumbria, England. It is the only coastal town within the Lake District National Park...

 on the Cumbrian coast to Dalegarth
Dalegarth for Boot railway station
Dalegarth for Boot railway station is the easterly terminus of the 15" gauge Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway in Cumbria. It has a café and shop for passengers, along with a run-round loop, turntable and siding for trains...

 near the village of Boot, in Eskdale
Eskdale, Cumbria
Eskdale is a glacial valley and civil parish in the western Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. It forms part of the Borough of Copeland, and has a population of 264....

.

No. 1 Sans Pareil

The first 15" gauge locomotive operated on the line, built by Bassett-Lowke
Bassett-Lowke
Bassett-Lowke was a toy company in Northampton, England, founded by Wenman Joseph Bassett-Lowke in 1898 or 1899, that specialized in model railways, boats and ships, and construction sets...

 of Northampton
Northampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...

 in 1912 as Prins Olaf for a railway in Cristiania
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

 (now Oslo), Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. It arrived for the line's opening in 1915 to Muncaster Mill. It was a Bassett-Lowke Class 30 4-4-2 locomotive and was painted in the dark blue livery of Narrow Gauge Railways. It was withdrawn from traffic in the mid 1920s and parts of it were incorporated into River Mite of 1927. Its leading pony truck was reused under the Passenger Tractor of 1929 for many years. An identical locomotive, Synolda, now resides in Ravenglass railway museum.

No. 2 Colossus

A Bassett-Lowke Class 60 4-6-2, built in 1913 for Captain JE Howey, later of Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway fame, and named John Anthony. It arrived at the same time as Katie in 1916 and was nearly destroyed in a collision with Muriel in 1925, however it ran after overhaul until 1927, when it was dismantled and utilised as part of the new River Mite 4-6-0-0-6-4 four-cylinder locomotive.

Muriel

A 0-8-0T, constructed for the Duffield Bank Railway
Duffield Bank Railway
The Duffield Bank Railway was built by Sir Arthur Percival Heywood in the grounds of his house on the hillside overlooking Duffield, Derbyshire in 1874. Although the Ordnance Survey map circa 1880 does not show the railway itself, it does show two tunnels and two signal posts.-Overview:It was more...

 by Sir Arthur Heywood in 1894. It arrived in Ravenglass via the Gretna munitions factory
HM Factory, Gretna
His Majesty's Factory, Gretna, or H.M. Factory, Gretna as it was usually known, was a UK government World War I Cordite factory, adjacent to the Solway Firth, near Gretna, Dumfries and Galloway...

 in 1917 with Ella and was principally used on stone trains.

River Irt

Muriel received a major overhaul and rebuilt at Murthwaite in 1927, becoming a 0-8-2
0-8-2
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-8-2 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and two trailing wheels on one axle ....

 tender locomotive named River Irt. It has remained in traffic on passenger duties ever since and is now the oldest working 15" gauge locomotive in the world. In 1972 it was rebuilt to a narrow gauge outline with a raised cab, and was then re-boilered in 1977, giving the locomotive its current appearance.

It has visited the National Railway Museum
National Railway Museum
The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the British National Museum of Science and Industry and telling the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It has won many awards, including the European Museum of the Year Award in 2001...

 in York and was part of the Ratty fleet at the Liverpool
International Garden Festival
thumb|200px|right|Commemorative [[coffee]] [[mug]] from the festival, showing a [[cartoon]] [[Liver bird]].The International Garden Festival was a garden festival recognised by the International Association of Horticultural producers and the Bureau of International Exhibitions and held in...

 and Gateshead Garden Festival
Gateshead Garden Festival
The Gateshead Garden Festival was the fourth of the United Kingdom's five National Garden Festivals. Held between May and October 1990, in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, it lasted 157 days, and received over three million visitors. Attractions included public art displays, a Ferris wheel, and dance,...

 Railways in 1984 and 1990. The livery of the loco is currently mid-green with yellow and black lining.

No. 4 Ella

Sir Arthur Heywood's 0-6-0T of 1881, built for his Duffield Bank Railway, it arrived with Muriel in 1917. Ten years later came the decision to convert the locomotive into an Internal Combustion machine, after years of regular use on granite trains from Beckfoot quarry. Its frames became part of ICL No. 2.

No. 5 Sir Aubrey Brocklebank

A 4-6-2 tender locomotive, similar to Colossus, built by Hunt of Southampton in 1919. The engine became the railway's new flagship locomotive on passenger duties and replaced Sans Pareil on in everyday usage. In 1927 the engine was dismantled and used in the construction of the new River Mite locomotive, the running gear of the locomotive combined with that of Colossus gave the railway a new four-cylinder machine for the 1928 season.

No. 6 Katie

A 0-4-0T built by Sir Arthur Heywood in 1896 for the Duke of Westminster's Eaton Hall Railway
Eaton Hall Railway
The Eaton Hall Railway was an early gauge narrow gauge estate railway built in 1896 at Eaton Hall in Cheshire.It was built for the Duke of Westminster by Sir Arthur Percival Heywood, who had pioneered the fifteen inch gauge with his Duffield Bank Railway, and connected the hall to the GWR...

. It came to Ravenglass in 1916 and left in 1919. Few photographs survive of it working in Cumbria, however the remains of the locomotive returned to the railway in 1982 after spells at Llewellyn's Miniature Railway, Southport
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...

 and the Fairbourne Railway
Fairbourne Railway
The Fairbourne Railway is a gauge miniature railway running for from the village of Fairbourne on the Mid-Wales coast, alongside the beach to the end of a peninsula at Barmouth Ferry, where there is a connection with a pedestrian ferry across the Mawddach estuary to the seaside resort of...

, Wales. In 1992, the R&ER Heritage Group formed, with an aim to restore the locomotive to original condition, a project which is now well underway, with the boiler mounted on the frames.

No. 7 River Esk

Built in 1923 as a 2-8-2
2-8-2
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-8-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle , eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and two trailing wheels on one axle...

 by Davey Paxman of Colchester and designed by Henry Greenly
Henry Greenly
Henry Greenly was amongst the foremost miniature railway engineers of the 20th century, remembered as a master of engineering design.-Miniature railways:...

, it was designed to haul both stone and passenger trains, however soon found more use on passenger traffic. It was painted works grey in 1924,then LMS red with black and straw lining to 1927. It was repainted mid green with black and yellow lining during a rebuild in 1928 by the Yorkshire Engine Co., when the engine received a Poultney steam tender, making the loco a 2-8-2-0-8-0. This proved unsuccessful and was soon removed, instead being utilised nearly forty years later as part of the second River Mite, after languishing at Murthwaite. The locomotive was out of use from 1940 to 1952, survived into the preservation era and was repainted in a new livery of LNWR
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...

 black in 1967 and received a new tender in 1970. In 1983, the Esk was fitted with a gas-producer boiler and received an award from British Coal, however this has been out of use since 2001. The locomotive has visited the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway several times and was a predecessor to that railway's Greenly Pacific locomotives. The engine is currently in Blackberry Black of the LNWR with red, off-white and black lining.

No. 8 River Mite (I)

Constructed at Murthwaite with a new boiler and the running gear of Colossus and Sir Aubrey Brocklebank in 1927, the first River Mite was an unsuccessful four-cylinder locomotive of the railway's own design. It lasted a decade in traffic before scrapping, the locomotive being too lightly built for the amount of work and the steepness of the gradients of the line.

No. 9 River Mite (II)

Using the former Poultney 0-8-0 tender chassis, fitted to River Esk from 1928 to 1931, the new Preservation Society in 1963 started fund raising and ordered it to be built into a 2-8-2 locomotive, which was designed and completed by Clarksons of York. It was delivered in December 1966 hauled by traction engine Providence, and commissioned on 20 May 1967. Its presence enabled the railway to operate a longer and more intensive summer service.

It is in many ways similar to the River Esk, using that loco's original 1923 coupled wheels in the Yorkshire Engine Company frames but different front and a rear Cortazzi truck, with a miniature main line outline styled on an LNER Gresley 2-8-2 P1 loco and an LMSR Stanier tender. The cost was some £8,000, entirely raised by voluntary subscription as are all the major maintenance costs.

After heavy overhauls in 1977 and 2006/7, it celebrated its fortieth year at Ravenglass in 2007 owned by the R&ER Preservation Society. The locomotive was painted in the Indian Red of the Furness Railway, with yellow and black (now vermilion and black) lining, apart from a short period in cherry red from 1972-77

No. 10 Northern Rock

After undertaking trials with the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway no. 2, Northern Chief in 1972, the railway company decided to construct a new 2-6-2 locomotive, originally to be named Sir Arthur Heywood. The railway received funding from the Northern Rock
Northern Rock
Northern Rock plc is a British bank, best known for becoming the first bank in 150 years to suffer a bank run after having had to approach the Bank of England for a loan facility, to replace money market funding, during the credit crisis in 2007.  Having failed to find a commercial buyer for...

 building society and so the locomotive was named after its chief sponsor. It entered traffic in 1976 and has visited many railways, as far away as Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, to publicise the railway. Two similar locomotives have been built at Ravenglass for the Shuzenji Romney Railway
Shuzenji Romney Railway
The Shuzenji Romney Railway is a gauge pleasure line located in Niji-no-Sato in Izu, Shizuoka, on the Izu Peninsula in Japan. It is based on the English Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway on the English Channel coast in Kent, which opened in 1925. The railway operates using a mixture of steam and...

 in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, Northern Rock II and Cumbria, in 1989 and 1992, respectively. The livery of the engine is Highland Railway
Highland Railway
The Highland Railway was one of the smaller British railways before the Railways Act 1921; it operated north of Perth railway station in Scotland and served the farthest north of Britain...

 Muscat Green with red and dark green lining.

No. 11 Bonnie Dundee

Originally a 2' gauge 0-4-0WT built by Kerr Stuart
Kerr Stuart
Kerr, Stuart and Company Ltd was a locomotive manufacturer from Stoke-on-Trent, England.-History:It was founded in 1881 by James Kerr as James Kerr & Company, and became Kerr, Stuart & Company from 1883 when John Stuart was taken on as a partner...

 in 1900 for Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

 gasworks, the engine was bought by Ian Fraser around 1960 (who took his case to build a loco shed in his garden to the Secretary of State for Scotland) and donated to the railway in 1976. After a rebuild, it emerged as an 0-4-2T in 1982, with the side tanks from 'Ella', and was used on winter and other lighter trains. 1996 saw the locomotive rebuilt again with a new boiler and reversed Southern valve gear replacing the original inside Stephenson's valve gear, this time incorporating a tender. Currently it is out of traffic and visited the Windmill Farm Railway in 2007-10 on static display. The engine is painted in the Bronze Green livery of the North British Railway
North British Railway
The North British Railway was a Scottish railway company that was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923.-History:...

.

Synolda

Sister locomotive to Sans Pareil, built in 1912 by Bassett-Lowke of Northampton. It arrived at the Ratty in 1978 and was restored to running condition in two years by apprentices from British Nuclear Fuels at the nearby Sellafield
Sellafield
Sellafield is a nuclear reprocessing site, close to the village of Seascale on the coast of the Irish Sea in Cumbria, England. The site is served by Sellafield railway station. Sellafield is an off-shoot from the original nuclear reactor site at Windscale which is currently undergoing...

. It currently resides in Ravenglass
Ravenglass
Ravenglass is a small coastal village and natural harbour in Cumbria, England. It is the only coastal town within the Lake District National Park...

, museum, however the locomotive is in operational condition and appears in steam at special events. The livery is Royal Blue of Narrow Gauge Railways.

The Flower of the Forest

An 0-4-0 vertical boilered tank engine, built for Ian Fraser of Arbroath in 1987. After Fraser's death in 1992, the engine returned to Ravenglass and operated during gala and "Thomas" events in the 1990s. It is now stored unserviceable in the Ravenglass museum compound. The livery is that of the North Eastern Railway
North Eastern Railway (UK)
The North Eastern Railway , was an English railway company. It was incorporated in 1854, when four existing companies were combined, and was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923...

.

Siân

Siân is a 2-4-2 currently at the Windmill Farm Railway, however it is owned by the Siân Project Group, who are members of the R&ER Preservation Society. The locomotive was built by Guest Engineering of Stourbridge
Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands of England. Historically part of Worcestershire, Stourbridge was a centre of glass making, and today includes the suburbs of Amblecote, Lye, Norton, Oldswinford, Pedmore, Wollaston, Wollescote and Wordsley The...

 in 1963 for the Fairbourne Railway
Fairbourne Railway
The Fairbourne Railway is a gauge miniature railway running for from the village of Fairbourne on the Mid-Wales coast, alongside the beach to the end of a peninsula at Barmouth Ferry, where there is a connection with a pedestrian ferry across the Mawddach estuary to the seaside resort of...

 in Wales and then worked at the Bure Valley Railway
Bure Valley Railway
The Bure Valley Railway is a minimum gauge heritage railway in Norfolk, within The Broads National Park.The railway runs from Wroxham to Aylsham and is Norfolk's longest railway of less than standard gauge. It uses both steam and diesel locomotives. There are intermediate halts at Brampton,...

 after the Fairbourne was re-gauged. It is currently in a maroon livery. It recently had an extended visit to Ravenglass between April 2008 and April 2009 but is now back in Lancashire.

ICL No. 1 Bunny

A rebuild of a Crewe Tractor, a WW1 rail-mounted Ford Model-T car with a 0-4-0 chain coupled wheel arrangement and a built-in turntable in order for it to change direction. It was used from 1923 to 1925 until the magneto broke the gearbox casing. The engine was rebuilt in 1926, with new running gear using the onetime Sand Hutton coach's bogie giving a 2-B petrol mechanical locomotive with a steeple cab wooden body. The loco in this form took and still holds the speed record for the line coming down from Dalegarth Cottages to Ravenglass driven by Cecil J Allan in some 14 minutes. This body lasted until October 1928, when it was damaged in a collision with ICL No. 2 near Muncaster Mill. The loco received its current body during extensive repairs. It continued in occasional use with light trains until the mid 1950s but was superseded as the other internal combustion locos used cheaper tax free TVO and could haul full length trains. It was operable until it had the engine removed in 1961 and became a toolvan or 'The Caboose' for the permanent way gang. It is now undergoing restoration to working condition with its Ford T engine.

ICL No. 2

1927 saw the appearance of this 2-6-2 petrol mechanical locomotive, stemming from a Lanchester Model 38 touring car chassis mounted on the running gear components of Ella' with the frames fitted to new cast stretchers . The engine and transmission from the Lanchester, worked a Parsons marine reverse box with chains to the rod final drive, within a teak body similar to that carried on ICL No. 1. It survived colliding with this loco in 1928 and was later withdrawn after pushing a big-end through the crank case the following year. It hauled passenger trains and the heaviest stone trains with equal ease but once the standard gauge line to Murthwaite was constructed and the second Muir-Hill loco converted for running at passenger train speeds, ICL 2 lost its role and was never rebuilt. By the 1950s the frames and wheels still lay besides the line at Murthwaite

NG 41

Chronologically, NG 41 was the third of the Muir-Hill
Muir-Hill
Muir Hill Ltd, started in the early 1920s as a general engineering company based in Old Trafford, Manchester, England. Best known for the production of simple rail locomotives and in the company's later life high horse power tractors, with production of Dumpers post war.-History:Amongst other...

 Fordson tractors to be acquired by the railway. It was built in 1929 in Manchester and bought by the railway in order to haul stone trains between Beckfoot Quarry, Murthwaite Crushing Plant and Ravenglass. After 1953, when the quarry closed, NG 41 was cannibalised for parts like the worm gearing for the other two Fordson locomotives. The chassis lay at Murthwaite until ot was scrapped in early 1972, however the wheels were used in the regauging of 'Bonnie Dundee'.

ICL No. 4 Passenger Tractor, then Perkins

NG 39 was the second Muir-Hill Fordson tractor to be bought by the railway for quarry traffic. It arrived in 1929, three years after the original tractor, and was rebuilt as a steam-outline diesel 0-4-4 using the front bogie off Sans Pareil in 1931 for occasional use on passenger trains. In this guise it was known as the Passenger Tractor and in the 1970s nicknamed Pretender.

It worked through the war and handle the first passenger services after the end of the conflict in May 1945. In 1975 the hand crank started petrol/ TVO tractor vaporising oil engine was replaced with a Perkins P6 diesel, giving the loco a modern radiator grill at the front. In 1984, the loco was rebuilt again, however this time it lost its fake steam outline and became an 0-4-2 similar to an industrial diesel shunter. It was named Perkins in 1985 and was given a twin-disc transmission in 1990 reverting to an 0-4-4.

Its main use is on permanent way trains being capable of slow speed work for flail mowing and weed killing. It is currently painted yellow and black.

Quarryman

The first Muir-Hill quarry tractor arrived in 1926 for use on the granite traffic but was used on passenger trains on busy days. It gained an open-backed enclosed cab. In 1953 it exchanged components with NG 41. It was for a time used on relief passenger services with the Passenger Tractor until Shelagh of Eskdale was upgraded in 1975. Up until 1979 it was used regularly on works trains and has now been restored to original condition and is part of the Museum Collection. Its last passenger run was a special for the Cumbrian Railways Association in 1979. Looked after by the Murthwaite Locomotive Group, it is currently operational and saw usage on permanent way duties, specifically ballast trains, in Winter 2007.

No. 6 Royal Anchor

An experimental B-B diesel hydraulic locomotive acquired by the railway in 1961 from the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, who had trialled it and found it not powerful enough. It was built in 1956 by Charles Lane of the Royal Anchor hotel in Hampshire. It used a Ford 4D engine and a hydraulic drive using parts from naval gun turrets (reputedly) and could haul three full open bogie coaches but struggled with four. Without brakes other than putting the transmission into reverse, its ability to stop was limited until it could operate with the first R&ER air braked coaches c1973. It was out of use in 1968 after failing to stop for cows on the crossing at Muncaster Mill, nevertheless it otherwise gave good service on the overnight and first morning round trip trains.

In the high summer season of 1975 it double headed Shelagh of Eskdale when the latter was incapable of hauling a heavy train. It was superseded by the completion of the Silver Jubilee Railcar in 1977. In 1978 it was sold on to Steamtown, Carnforth
West Coast Railway Company
West Coast Railways, also known as West Coast Railway Company, is a railway spot-hire company and charter train operator, based at Carnforth in Lancashire, on the site of the old Steamtown heritage depot...

, however when this railway closed to the public, David Smith of Carnforth then sold them to American film director Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...

 in 2000 for use on a railway in one of his Californian vineyards. The engine first went to the Golden Gate Railroad Museum
Golden Gate Railroad Museum
The Golden Gate Railroad Museum is a non-profit railroad museum in California that is dedicated to the preservation of steam and passenger railroad equipment, as well as the interpretation of local railroad history....

 for repairs however the locomotive is currently in storage on the Coppola estate.

No. 7 Shelagh of Eskdale

Tom Jones' Diesel was a 4-6-4 diesel-hydraulic locomotive partially built by Heathcotes of Cleator Moor
Cleator Moor
Cleator Moor is a small town and civil parish in the English county of Cumbria and within the boundaries of the traditional county of Cumberland....

 in 1956-7. The running gear utilises parts from Ella, specifically the crankwebs (5 of 6 originals survive) and centre drum of the sliding axle. as a repair for accountancy purposes. Unusually for a diesel locomotive, the driven axles are linked by coupling rod
Coupling rod
right|thumb|connecting rod and coupling rods attached to a small locomotive driving wheelA coupling rod or side rod connects the driving wheels of a locomotive. Steam locomotives in particular usually have them, but some diesel and electric locomotives, especially older ones and shunters, also have...

s, as for a steam locomotive. When the line was up for sale, the construction was put on hold, however in 1969 the chassis were sent away to Severn-Lamb of Stratford-on-Avon for completion to a design by David Curwen. Originally the engine was a Ford 4D, as in Royal Anchor, and had a Linde hydrostatic transmission that suffered cavitation problems on hot days of constant operation; however this transmission was upgraded and the engine was replaced in 1975 by a Perkins 6/354.

In September 1981 the loco went to the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway to work the School train services during the decision to build and the construction of 'John Southland'. Shortly after its return to Ravenglass in 1983, it went briefly to Britannia Park, then to the International Garden Festival Railway ar Liverpool from March 1984 until October, hauling HM Queen Elizabeth on the Opening Day, and the Gateshead Garden Festival from February to October 1990..

In 1998 the engine was rebuilt into a diesel-mechanical locomotive when it gained a Ford industrial engine with Spicer Compact Shuttle transmission. It is currently a mixed traffic engine and used throughout the year. Its livery was originally blue with a silver roof, and has been two-tone green of various shades since 1978.

Silver Jubilee

The Silver Jubilee railcar was a set of coaches which first appeared in an embryonic stage in September 1976 as a single coach fitted with the Ford D engine and Linde transmission formerly in Shalagh of Eskdale, and centreless bogies. The three-car unit was named and launched in May 1977 at the inauguration of the railway's radio control system, the extra coaches being a driving trailer with air throttle controls at the Ravenglass end and a piped centre coach, which was later modified as a saloon for wheelchair access. The original livery was silver with the official Queens Silver Jubilee vinyl badges used on buses and later a blue line.

During its operating lifetime, the set was first used on a shuttle service from Ravenglass to the newly opened Muncaster Mill, and then largely on the first morning round trip and "overnight" trains, the latter throughout the winter. Although geared for speed, a valiant attempt in special conditions in November 1979 of 17 mins down the line never broke the end to end line speed record held by ICL No 1 from forty years before.

First the original powercar in 1983 and then in early 1984 both end driving coaches were fitted with automatic gearboxes with electric direction control and air for throttle. In 1984 the unit went to the Liverpool Garden Festival Railway
International Garden Festival
thumb|200px|right|Commemorative [[coffee]] [[mug]] from the festival, showing a [[cartoon]] [[Liver bird]].The International Garden Festival was a garden festival recognised by the International Association of Horticultural producers and the Bureau of International Exhibitions and held in...

, with an extra semi-open coach added in the middle of the formation, and for this event it first carried the BR InterCity Executive livery, the first vehicles in the country to do so after the concept coach, using the official BR paint. This livery saw detail changes as the main line HST livery evolved.

After the school train, overnight and winter service stopped in 2001, Jubilee lost its particular role. Latterly repainted in First Group 'Barbie' blue and pink/white striped livery, it was finally withdrawn after a trial visit as a 2 car unit to the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway
Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway
Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway is a railway built in 1948 in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire operating between Cleethorpes Leisure Centre and behind Pleasure Island/buck beck. It was originally built to a slightly smaller gauge.-History:...

 in 2003, and has now been completely converted into loco hauled coaching stock. The centre saloon remains disabled saloon number 123, the centre semi-open number 126 is 2010-11 being rebuilt to a disabled saloon with new structure under the old roof, the driving trailer now being saloon 136 and the driving car has been converted into disabled saloon 137.

No. 8 Lady Wakefield

Lady Wakefield, known colloquially as Doris, is a B-B diesel mechanical locomotive completed at Ravenglass in 1980 and designed by Ian Smith, the railway's chief engineer at the time, based on a layout proposal by Neil Simpkins for the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway. It was built with a Perkins 6/354 engine, identical to that which was in Shelagh of Eskdale at the time. The engine however has a Twin Disc gearbox and driveshafts to each end, along with chain-coupled wheels in centreless bogies.

Shortly after commissioning in August 1980, the engine went to New Romney to prove diesel traction was capable of handling the required loads and speeds on the RH&DR. The cab had been made to (just) fit through the Romney's restricted loading gauge under the Littlestone Road tunnel. It became the basis for their two diesel engines, John Southland and Captain Howey built by TMA Engineering with a heavier slab frame and shaft coupled wheels, and the John Southland II built for Shujenji in Japan and trialled at Ravenglass in 1989. While at Romney, it showed that a single diesel locomotive was capable of pulling the heavy sixteen coach school train. The engine was also used as the template for the smaller 12" gauge diesel, Lady of the Lakes, for the Ruislip Lido Railway, which was also constructed at Ravenglass.

It was named by the wife of Lord Wavell Wakefield and used on permanent way duties throughout the year and passenger work in the summer. It was originally painted maroon with yellow, later various bright red stripes, then blue with yellow ends and DRS styled motifs, and currently carries British Railways Brunswick Green livery with small yellow warning panels, like a British Railways Class 20
British Rail Class 20
The British Rail Class 20, otherwise known as an English Electric Type 1, is a class of diesel-electric locomotive. In total, 228 locomotives in the class were built by English Electric between 1957 and 1968, the large number being in part because of the failure of other early designs in the same...

.

Greenbat

Greenbat, also known as U2, is one of many battery electric locomotives that were built in Leeds by Greenwood & Batley
Greenwood & Batley
Greenwood & Batley were a large engineering manufacturer with a wide range of products, including armaments, electrical engineering, and printing and milling machinery. They also produced a range of battery-electric railway locomotives under the brand name Greenbat...

. This particular engine was built in 1957 for Thomas Marshall & Co. of Storrs Bridge Fireclay Mine in Yorkshire. Its builder’s number is 2872 and was originally built to a rare and unusual gauge of 16". When the mine closed, the engine was brought to Ravenglass in 1982, where the wheels were re-profiled to the Ratty's gauge and then became a versatile engine with which to shunt coaching stock. It awaits refurbishment at Ravenglass.

No. 9 Cyril

Named after former company employee, Cyril Holland, Cyril is owned by the Murthwaite Locomotive Group, formerly named "Shabtrak", and is one of many industrial narrow gauge diesels built by R.A. Listers. It was built in 1932, used on a Peat Bog railway not far from Manchester and first preserved at the Moseley Railway Trust
Moseley Railway Trust
The Moseley Railway Trust is a major British collection of industrial narrow gauge locomotives and other equipment. It originally had its base in south Manchester, but has completely relocated to the Apedale Country Park near Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire where a passenger railway is now open...

, in Stockport, in its original form of an open sided cab and on 2' gauge. When the engine arrived on the Ratty in 1985, the volunteers of "Shabtrak" used parts from another Lister locomotive and a 2-cylinder, 12 hp Lister engine to rebuild it to 15" gauge, and fitted a new cab and bonnet, in the style of a Lister Blackstone RM2. The engine now has full electrics, radio and air brake systems for working light passenger trains in emergencies and in 1989 was re-engined with a 20 h.p. Lister engine to improve performance. It was rebodied in 2006 by Ian Page Engineering of Millom
Millom
Millom is a town and civil parish on the estuary of the River Duddon in the southwest of Cumbria, England. The name is Cumbrian dialect for "At the mills". The town is accessible both by rail and an A class road...

. It is currently painted dark green.

Blacolvesley

Owned by Dr Bob Tebb, Blacolvesley is the oldest workable internal combustion locomotive in the world. It was built by Bassett-Lowke in 1909 utilising parts of Henry Greenly's Class 10 Atlantic locomotives. Originally, it was fitted with a NAG 12/14 h.p. engine, which was later replaced with an Austin 8 engine at Saltbur. However, the original transmission, gearbox and bevel drive all remain in use. It was built for Charles Bartholomew of Blakesley Hall, but the engine has had a varied history since leaving there in 1939. It was later named "Elizabeth" and worked on the railways at Saltburn, Haswell Lodge and Lightwater Valley up until 1994, although had been inoperable since the mid 1970s. When it arrived at Ravenglass, it was successfully restarted and operated in August 1994. It is now painted in its original colours once again and operated at gala events. The locomotive celebrated its 100th birthday in 2009 and went for static display at the Seaside Miniature Railway Museum at Cleethorpes in 2010.

No. 10 Les

Les is a unique Lister diesel locomotive – the only 15" gauge locomotive constructed by R.A. Lister
R A Lister and Company
R A Lister & Company was founded in Dursley, Gloucestershire, in 1867 by Sir Robert Ashton Lister , to produce agricultural machinery. The family was originally from Yorkshire but Ashton's father relocated to Dursley in 1817....

 – built in 1960 for Mr J. Lemon-Burton, of West Sussex. When he died, the engine went to the Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway
Bredgar and Wormshill Light Railway
The Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway is located near the villages of Wormshill and Bredgar in Kent, just south of Sittingbourne. It is a gauge narrow gauge railway about half a mile in length....

 in Kent. Here it gained the number 21 and the present name and livery. The engine's top speed is 7 mi/h and is used by the fitters for minor shunting activities in the confines of Ravenglass station. It is currently in Lister dark green with cream stripes at one end.

No. 11 Douglas Ferreira

In July 2004, the R&ER Preservation Society placed an order with TMA Engineering of Birmingham for a new B-B diesel hydraulic locomotive, which was to be funded by the Society. It was delivered the following year and named after the recently-deceased former General Manager, Douglas Ferreira
Douglas Ferreira
Douglas Ferreira, O.B.E., was the longest serving General Manager of the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway, a heritage railway in Cumbria, England known as the "Ratty". He was at the heart of the "Ratty" for thirty four years....

. It is a diesel-hydraulic locomotive, with a Perkins 4-cylinder turbocharged engine, which is more compact yet even more powerful than that on Lady Wakefield, and is essentially a development of the quarter-century elder loco. The running gear with shaft coupled wheels is similar to the Romney diesels but inset with footwells at each end of the steel slab frame.

The engine has proved to be a great success, using a modern low-emissions power unit with complete reliability. It has been in almost daily service since its commissioning and is easy to operate, service, and maintain. It is leased by the society to the company, carrying a Furness Railway Indian Red livery matching that on River Mite. It operated at the Bure Valley Railway gala in September 2009.

Three foot gauge locomotives

For the construction of the railway by Ambrose Oliver, the 'Contractor's locomotive' was noted in reports in the Whitehaven News at work in late 1874 but its identity and its subsequent history has never been determined. Just before the opening of the 3 foot (0.9144 m) gauge line to goods in May 1875 a 0-6-0
0-6-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels...

 tank locomotive
Tank locomotive
A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of pulling it behind it in a tender. It will most likely also have some kind of bunker to hold the fuel. There are several different types of tank locomotive dependent upon...

 was obtained from Manning Wardle
Manning Wardle
Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.- Precursor companies :The city of Leeds was one of the earliest centres of locomotive building; Matthew Murray built the first commercially successful steam locomotive, Salamanca, in Holbeck, Leeds,...

. Its works number was 545 and it was named Devon. A second, similar, locomotive followed in October 1876 before the line opened to passengers. This was Manning Wardle works number 629, named Nabb[sic] GillIan Allan ABC of Narrow Gauge Railways, c. 1960, pp 49-50. The design was a '3ft Special' developed from designs for Russia from 1871, and repeated for the Malta Railway from 1880.

The Manning Wardle locos had heavy repairs one at a time at the Lowca Engine Works c 1892-5 with the fitting of Westinghouse air brake equipment and new smokeboxes. In 1905 a derailment at Murthwaite (halt) involved a loco with the boiler from 'Nabb Gill' and the side tanks of 'Devon', but only 'Devon' was working in the later years to the end of 3ft gauge services in April 1913. Both locos were gone, presumed scrapped by late 1915.

Standard gauge locomotives

In December 1929, a standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

 0-6-0 diesel locomotive
Diesel locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...

 was obtained to work the Ravenglass-Murthwaite section. It was built by Kerr Stuart
Kerr Stuart
Kerr, Stuart and Company Ltd was a locomotive manufacturer from Stoke-on-Trent, England.-History:It was founded in 1881 by James Kerr as James Kerr & Company, and became Kerr, Stuart & Company from 1883 when John Stuart was taken on as a partner...

 (works number 4421) and had a six-cylinder, 90 hp, McLaren-Benz engine. Transmission was mechanical and final drive was by roller chain
Roller chain
Roller chain or bush roller chain is the type of chain drive most commonly used for transmission of mechanical power on many kinds of domestic, industrial and agricultural machinery, including conveyors, wire and tube drawing machines, printing presses, cars, motorcycles, and simple machines like...

s. In 1955, it was sold, through a dealer, to the National Coal Board
National Coal Board
The National Coal Board was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...

 for use at Wingate Grange Colliery, Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...

. A new Dorman engine of 90 hp was fitted in 1960Rolt, L.T.C. A Hunslet Hundred, David & Charles 1964, pp 98-100. It is now preserved at the Foxfield Light Railway
Foxfield Light Railway
The Foxfield Light Railway is a preserved standard gauge line located south east of Stoke-on-Trent. The line was built in 1893 to serve the colliery at Dilhorne on the Cheadle Coalfield. It joined the North Staffordshire Railway line near Blythe Bridge....

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/foxfield/rom_river.htm, restored to original external condition and was displayed at Ravenglass in the summer of 2000.

An unidentified Standard gauge Muir-Hill loco was also noted at Murthwaite c 1954.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK