Northern Rock

Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway NORTHERN ROCK A brand new locomotive was needed Even as the River Mite entered service in 1967, the increasing traffic on the railway meant that there would be no spare engine for the summer season. Proposals for a new locomotive was made, based on the tried and tested boiler design of the River Esk , but with changes to styling unlike the locomotives built for Ireland, India and the Andes. Thus a half-size, narrow gauge locomotive made to match the covered coaches meant all the parts were more substantial than the third-size, main line designs e marshes thern Rock on th which preceeded them. Present day Nor Nort hern Rock during bu ilding, 1976 ceremony issioning 6 Comm glass, 197 at Raven Length: 24ft Completed: 1976 Wheel arrangement: 2-6-2 Trials of Northern Chief Livery: Muscat green From Cumbria Before the design was committed to to the Far East construction a visit was made in November One of Northern Rock’s many admirers 1971 by Northern Chief from the Romney, Hythe & was Mr Nagae from Japan. His project was to lay a Dymchurch Railway to examine performance . Although 15" gauge railway around Niji-no-Sato country park at the new Ravenglass locomotive was not fitted with a superheated Shu-jen-ji 70 miles south west of Tokyo, and the rolling boiler, like Northern Chief, it was completed with six driving stock was to be made in Britain. Work began in the new wheels, leaf springs and a pilot valve regulator. workshops at Ravenglass on two steam locomotives like Northern Rock. The first, a look-alike machine called Built at Ravenglass Northern Rock 11, was delivered in 1990 followed in 1992 The boiler was the last ever made by the Hunslet Engine Company by Cumbria, which was mechanically identical but with in Leeds, but virtually every other component came to Ravenglass different bodywork and dark green livery. The two sister as a piece of flat steel plate, or a rough raw casting, to be locomotives continue to run every day of the year on machined to size and fitted in the railway’s own workshops. this delightful line in the foothills of Mount Fuji. The work took Chief Engineer Ian Smith and his assistants, David Clay and Ian Page, three years from 1973 and when they Above improvement lit the very first fire in her boiler, she raised steam and was taken Northern Rock has now given yet another generation up the line without further adjustments. of visitors continued and reliable service in the ever changing conditions which affect the Ravenglass & What’s in a name? Eskdale Railway. Because the railway operates within The locomotive was initially going to be called after Sir Arthur many of the regulations applicable to main line railways, Heywood who had developed 15" (3 81mm) as the Minimum air brakes have been fitted, otherwise minimal alterations Gauge Railway. However, when outside funding was needed to are a tribute to her designer and builders. complete the project (with support from the English Tourist Board and the then Mutual Building Society) the Northern Rock was deemed appropriate as the railway had been built and had survived for so many years by carrying stone. Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway RIVER ESK Scale models River Esk was designed by engineer Henry Greenly who had worked with Bassett- Lowkes on model train designs of many Length: 24ft different scales to run in playrooms, Completed: 1923 gardens, country estates, fairgrounds and Wheel arrangement: 2-8-2 exhibitions. In 191 5 the Eskdale Line had Livery: British Railways reopened as ‘The Smallest Public Railway in the World’ using their quarter scale black locomotives for passengers and Heywood’s for goods. If loads were heavy however the little engines often needed the passengers to get out and help to push them up hills! The goods engine would also run out of steam if required to run fast on busy days. Built at Colchester River Esk was specified to be the equal of two of the smaller locomotives, the boiler being bigger than many contemporary narrow gauge designs, as it had to pull 25 tons of stone from the quarry and return with 160 passengers. She was was built at Davey, Esk at resent day River P 0s’ Paxman & Co Ltd the very versatile engineers who built everything Dalegarth mid 7 from traction engines to refrigeration units for cargo ships. Based on this design Davey, Paxman & Co Ltd made further one third scale locomotives used on the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway and went on to develop diesel engines like the ‘Valenta’ used to power British Rail’s High Speed Train Fleet. At Fi sherground ea Krauss of Munich built a fleet of machines similar to River Esk for rly 1960’s exhibitions and pleasure parks and they are still found around the world today from Germany and Austria to Spain and India. Riv Problems of a pioneer er Esk at th e builders in Colc When first delivered on 18th December 1923 River Esk had hester 1923 pioneering poppet valve cylinders and Davey, Paxman & Co Ltd’s patent valve gear. Unfortunately they gave problems until they were replaced five years later by Walschaerts valve gear used on most contemporary main line locomotives. However she was still a testbed for radical new ideas as the Yorkshire Engine Company then Tried and tested fitted a steam powered tender: ‘ The Poultney system’. This increased her haulage ability from 25 to 50 tons of granite but when petrol In 1985 she won a award for combustion experiments using powered locomotives were introduced she was taken out of the ‘ Gas Producer Combustion System’ which had been fitted service and stored. to her new boiler for the day when supplies of good quality smokeless fuel dry up. She also visited the Romney Hythe & Lakeland’s special attraction Dymchurch Railway to celebrate the 60 th anniversary of her fellow locomotives, pulling the Paxman Jubilee Train , filled Although River Esk only hauled stone for a few years she was one with workers past and present from the Colchester factory of the things which attracted tourists to Eskdale as virtually every other narrow gauge line in Britain had already closed where she was built. In recent years River Esk to passengers. She was out of action from 1939 for hauled the Royal Train when HRH Princess boiler repairs, which were extended due to shortages Alexandra travelled on the Ravenglass & until 1952, but has operated every season since Eskdale Railway in 2009. running between 4,000 to 8,000 miles a year. er ultney tend iver Esk Po 20’s R ass, late 19 at Ravengl Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway RIVER IRT Dalegarth Circa 1960 at River Irt a t Dalegar between th – the wars iver Irt t day R Presen A new name for a rejuvenated engine In 1927 a new locomotive-type boiler and separate tender for coke and water radically changed the appearance and capacity of Muriel. Her new appearance was rather squat, due to the fitting of a model engine cab to the already wide chassis, causing Chief Engineer Ted Wright to exclaim “Did I order that?” after only sending a side elevation drawing Length: 24ft for the tender tank to be made. Completed: 1893 Renamed River Irt she was an instant The Minimum Wheel arrangement: 0-8-2 success as she pulled over 260 people in one special train (although the heather Gauge Railway Livery: Mid green picking days were over the driver still Although Arthur Heywood was born into a needed a stout mackintosh!) River Irt ran wealthy banking family his interests were very reliably up to the outbreak of the Second practical. At his country house at Duffield Bank he World War then was steamed up again when decided to build the smallest practical railway that could hostilities ceased. carry passengers, or replace the horse, in factories, quarries and the army. “Man being an article of approximately standard size, it is clear there must be a Another change for the better minimum gauge which will be stable enough...15" gauge seems the smallest that By the 1960’s River Irt was recognised not as an will thoroughly insure safety in this respect.” oddity but as an important part of Britain’s railway heritage. After suggestions from railway volunteers, Powerful and fast River Irt changed her appearance again in 1972 with a taller chimney, dome and a cab to match a new Heywood built six locomotives in workshops behind the house (where there bogie tender. These improved the steaming of the were even tunnels, a viaduct and a foundry to cast metal!) The new engine was boiler, the protection of the driver and matched designed to show “... how powerful and fast travelling an engine could be on the the height of the covered coaches then coming 15" gauge.” The 0-8-0 tank locomotive had special wheelsets that swivelled to go into service. round a 25' radius bend but no cab as “... a stout mackintosh is cheaper and far better for the driver.” It was called Muriel after his eldest daughter. Flower Power As the oldest locomotive on the line River Irt Muriel runs the trains hauled special trains to celebrate 100 Years of When the Minimum Gauge Railway at Duffield Bank was demonstrated to the Goods Trains and 125 Years of Passenger Operations Army Engineers, the Royal Agricultural Society and many other important visitors, on the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway. She then Heywood’s nine children ran the line: the boys drove the engines and the girls went to the National Railway Museum as the (organised by their big sister) clipped tickets and worked the signal boxes.

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