Help get Quarryman running on La’al Ratty again
AN APPEAL to restore the sole-surviving locomotive from the days when the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway still hauled quarry traffic has been launched.
As a first step, the Ravenglass Railway Museum wants to raise £5000 to overhaul 1926-built Muir-Hill fourwheeled petrol and tractor vaporising oil locomotive Quarryman.
In an age when industry rather than tourism was the lifeblood of the Lakeland railway, more robust engines were needed to carry the heavy loads of stone from Beckfoot Quarry down to the Murthwaite Stone Crushing Plant.
With its simple Fordson tractor design, more commonly used in agricultural machinery, Quarryman took over when the ageing steam engines of the day struggled with the heavy loads from the quarry.
Quarryman proved so effective that two similar engines were ordered by the railway company in 1929 and used on the railway until 1953 when the quarry closed, after which
Quarryman diversified into other areas of operation and was regularly used for trackwork as well as the occasional passenger train.
Quarryman needs essential works to restore it to a condition where it can once again be demonstrated to the public on the RER.
When it was eventually withdrawn from service in 1982, a restoration brought it as close to its original 1926 condition as possible. With assistance from volunteers, it remained in a useable condition for occasional operations.
A test run in 2017 resulted in damage to the engine block but thanks to spares being readily available, a replacement engine was soon acquired and fitted. However, a recent initial inspection indicated that the clutch on the locomotive has seized and will need dismantling. There are also issues with deterioration of the fuel tank lining.
The appeal has been launched in the wake of the museum’s three-year campaign to overhaul 1912-built Bassett Lowke 4-4-2 Synolda for use at special events. Work on building a new tender is now progressing.
The museum’s Claire Winter-Moore said: “We are thrilled that the Synolda fundraising campaign was such a success and would like to say thankyou to everyone who contributed. We hope our next project captures the imagination of the public once more as we look to bring another one of our lovely locos back to life.
“Quarryman is very special– not only does it represent the start of the agricultural revolution when internal combustion was becoming more widespread, but on a more local level it also helped keep the railway running at a difficult point in its history. During the Second World War, when there were no passenger services, Quarryman helped keep the stone traffic moving, making it the only source of revenue for the railway at that time. It’s possible that without Quarryman and its partners, the railway may not have survived.”
➜ A JustGiving page – www.justgiving. com/campaign/quarrymanappeal – has been launched and will feature regular project updates.