Fully operational fleet would be ‘quite something’ says the DVLR
THE Derwent Valley Light Railway is just a few replacement parts away from achieving the landmark of having every one of its nine locomotives in working order and available for either passenger use or shunting demonstrations.
Based in York's Murton Park, the home of the Yorkshire Museum of Farming, the standard gauge railway has a fleet of nine diesels, three of which are ex-BR. The only current nonoperative locomotive is a Ruston & Hornsby 88DS 4wDM that requires cylinder liners and pistons to enable it to join its working stablemates.
DVLR trustee Trevor Humbey, who oversees the locomotives and rolling stock department, said the parts needed were in the Ruston VPH series, for which there were very few outlets and thus were not readily available. “We are looking for what we require, but it is proving difficult,” he said, adding that if some were traced, he would expect work on the loco to be completed within a year.
In addition to the non-operative locomotive, the railway has five more industrial diesels – two other Ruston & Hornsby 88DS models, a Ruston 48DS 4wDM, a 165DS 0-4-0 from the same manufacturer, and the oldest in the fleet, a 1947 Fowler 0-4-0DM.
Completing the line-up are the three ex-BR locomotives, No. 03079 (D2079), Class 04 D2245 and the most recent arrival, Class 08 No. 08528 (D3690), a former Liverpool Street station pilot.
Of the possibility of having the entire fleet operational, Trevor said: “We have never previously had every loco available, but this time it is all falling into place.
“It would be quite something, as many railways have a greater proportion of locos out of use than we do.”
His pride was echoed by Jonathan Stockwell, the railway's archivist and joint editor of the society's quarterly newsletter. He said that even having eight out of nine in working order was “an amazing achievement”.
The original Derwent Valley Light Railway ran for 15 miles from York Layerthorpe to Cliffe Common, near Selby. It opened in 1912 for mainly agricultural traffic, although passenger trains ran until 1926, and closed in September 1981, at which time it was one of the last privately-run standard gauge lines in the country.
In 1990 preservationists took over a half-mile stretch of the line that is their home today, within Murton Park, where the original track was still in place. Regular passenger services started there in 1993.