Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway locomotives
The first 15 in (381 mm) gauge locomotive operated on the line, built by Bassett-Lowke of Northampton in 1912 as Prins Olaf for a railway in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway.
A Bassett-Lowke Class 60 4-6-2, built in 1913 for Captain JE Howey, later of Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway fame, and named John Anthony.
Following completion of the new workshop in 2015, River Esk was rebuilt at Ravenglass with a new tender based on the one provided for Whillan Beck, and improvements to her exhaust system along with other modernisations by Nigel Day.
The first River Mite was an articulated Kitson-Meyer locomotive built at Murthwaite in 1927, using the frames and running gear of Colossus and Sir Aubrey Brocklebank as the power bogies.
It had been intended to rebuild her with stronger, purpose built power bogies, but the outbreak of the Second World War, and the subsequent post-war austerity, made this impossible.
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 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 Class P1 locomotive and an LMSR Stanier tender.
2, Northern Chief in 1972, it was decided that the new loco would be a 2-6-2 narrow gauge outline design to match the profile of the new closed saloons entering service on the railway, and incorporating the best features of a number of existing locomotives.
After the railway received funding from the Northern Rock building society to support the construction of the new loco, it was instead decided to name the locomotive after its chief sponsor.
[5] Originally a 2 ft (610 mm) gauge 0-4-0WT built by Kerr Stuart in 1900 for Dundee gasworks, the engine was bought by Ian Fraser around 1960 (who took his case to build a locomotive shed in his garden to the Secretary of State for Scotland)[citation needed] and donated to the railway in 1976.
A rebuild of a Crewe Tractor, a First World War 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 1933 for occasional use on passenger trains.
In 1975 the hand crank started petrol/TVO (tractor vaporising oil) engine was replaced with a Perkins P6 Diesel, giving the locomotive a modern radiator grill at the front.
Looked after by the Murthwaite Locomotive Group, it is currently operational and saw usage on permanent way duties, specifically ballast trains, in winter 2007.
It used a Ford 4D engine and a hydraulic drive, reputedly using parts from naval gun turrets, and could haul three full open bogie coaches but struggled with four.
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.
Shortly after its return to Ravenglass in 1983, it went briefly to Britannia Park, then to the International Garden Festival railway at Liverpool from March until October 1984, hauling HM Queen Elizabeth on the Opening Day.
It is currently on long term loan to the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway due to their mainline diesels both needing major work.
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.
The original powercars were fitted with automatic gearboxes with electric direction control and air for throttle in 1983, followed both end driving coaches in early 1984.
Latterly repainted in FirstGroup '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 in 2003, and has now been completely converted into locomotive hauled coaching stock.
[9] 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.
While at Romney, Lady Wakefield showed that a single diesel locomotive was capable of pulling the heavy sixteen coach school train.
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.
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.
