TINY HISTORY

Now the last surviving genuine Great Western broad gauge locomotive, Tiny’s significance was recognised 90 years ago when it was set aside for preservation by the GWR. Built in 1868 by Sara & Co. of Penryn, Cornwall, for the South Devon Railway, the diminutive 0-4-0VBT (originally numbered 151) was used for shunting at Newton Abbot until the early 1880s. It became part of GWR stock as No. 2180 when the SDR was absorbed in 1876, and was used for many years as a stationary engine to work the pumps in the boiler house at Newton Abbot works, with one of its flanged wheels replaced by a pulley wheel. The GWR preserved it in 1927, perhaps seeking to make amends for its mistake in 1906, when it scrapped the two broad gauge locomotives - 2-2-2 North Star and 4-2-2 Lord of the Isles - that it had put aside for preservation after withdrawal in 1871 and 1884 respectively. Tiny was placed on display at Newton Abbot station until 1980, when it was moved to Buckfastleigh museum on today’s South Devon Railway, where it remains today. Apart from replicas, just two other 7ft 0¼in gauge locomotives remain in the world - a pair of 0-4-0STs in the Azores, Falcon Works No. 165 of 1888, and what is believed to be Black Hawthorn Works No. 766.