L&B LAUNCHES PROJECT TO BUILD TWO MANNING WARDLES

Spurred on by permission to extend, railway plans to build a pair of replica 2-6-2Ts.

The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway is launching a £1.1 million project to build two new Manning Wardle 2-6-2Ts.

Now the revived line has been granted planning permission to extend its running line by 4½ miles to Blackmoor and Wistlandpound (SR478), the L&B will be launching the project to build replicas of Nos. 759 Yeo and 760 Exe at its Autumn Gala on September 29/30, 82 years to the day since the railway closed in 1935. Sponsored by Steam Railway, the first components made for the new locomotives – their nameplates and numberplates – are expected to be on display at Woody Bay during the event.

Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Trust Chairman Peter Miles says the project is being launched now so the locomotives will be ready to haul trains over the 5½-mile route, once the railway has completed its extension from Killington Lane to Wistlandpound reservoir, as the line’s current motive power will not be sufficient for the extended running line.

Yeo and Exe will be the third and fourth L&B replicas built in the preservation era, following Manning Wardle No. E190 Lyd in May 2010, and the unique Baldwin 2-4-2T No. 762 Lyn in September last year. Both locomotives will be running together during the Autumn Gala, the first time these L&B designs have been in steam together since the railway closed. Yeo and Exe will use the patterns created for Lyd as, aside from detail differences, the locomotives are mechanically identical. Although details have yet to be finalised, Yeo will be built at Killamarsh, Derbyshire – which has extensive experience in narrow gauge locomotive restoration and overhauls – while Exe will be built by the Ffestiniog Railway at Boston Lodge.

For more details on the L&B Manning Wardle project, see p64-67.