Peter set for summer return for museum’s steam season
AMBERLEY Museum, home to one of the most comprehensive collections of different gauge locomotives in the country, has unveiled its 2022 season of trains that will see the return of a popular 0-4-0ST and a unique diesel hauling a regular monthly passenger service for the first time.
The working museum, located in a 36-acre former chalk quarry near Arundel in West Sussex, has a half-mile 2ft gauge ‘main line’ with three stations that will see steam and diesel passenger trains at weekends from March 20 to October 29.
The 2022 season opener on March 20 will feature Peldon, a 40hp 0-4-0 diesel which proved its reliability on December’s santa trains and so is being trusted for the first time to run scheduled trains at least once a month during the coming season.
Built by John Fowler & Co in 1936 (works No. 21295), ex-Essex Water Authority Peldon is the only surviving operational locomotive of the Resilient class and as such has earned itself a small piece of history in the world of diesel preservation.
Gala weekend
The museum is holding its railway gala weekend on July 23/24, for which footplate crews are hoping to welcome back 0-4-0ST Peter after a major overhaul that started in January 2019 and has included its boiler being restored by Andy Bennett at his Highbridge works in Somerset. Until then 2-4-0T Polar Bear will share duties with Peldon.
Peter was built to 3ft gauge by WG Bagnall in 1918 for the Ministry of Munitions, was subsequently converted to 2ft gauge, and in 1922 was sold to Cliffe Hill Granite Co in Leicestershire, whose internal railway connected with the LMS LeicesterCoalville line near Bardon Hill station.
It was withdrawn in 1949 and passed through the hands of several owners before arriving at Amberley in 1982.
Its steam stablemate, Polar Bear, is another Bagnall locomotive, having been built in 1905 for the Isle of Man’s Groudle Glen Railway, and it too arrived at Amberley in 1982. Its first appearance this year will be at a Mother’s Day event on March 27, and it will be a regular feature of the museum’s running season until the end of October.
Museum director Valerie Mills said: “Last year exceeded our expectations, and our staff and 300 active volunteers are getting ready for what we all hope will be a great year for the museum.
Impressive collection
“The railway will feature prominently, and the most important event will undoubtedly be the return of Peter, whose mechanical overhaul has, as far as possible, been done in-house, with just a few specialist jobs being contracted out to local engineering companies.”
The museum, which has a short standard gauge demonstration track in addition to the 2ft gauge line, houses a collection of more than 30 locomotives in no fewer than 13 gauges, from 1ft 6in to 5ft 3in. Also on site are more than 20 exhibition areas, ranging from vintage vehicles, including operational buses, to communications, electrical goods and traditional crafts.
The former chalk pits in which the museum is located operated as a working quarry from 1846 until 1969 and employed 100 people at its peak. It had a standard gauge internal railway system linked to the nearby national network, comprising a fleet of four steam and diesel locomotives transporting such materials as chalk, coal, and coke to the kilns.