STATFOLD BARN ‘TAMAR’ TO BE USED AS ALTERNATIVE FUEL TESTBED
Statfold Barn Railway-based Hunslet ‘Tamar’ 0-4-2PT Works No. 3756 will be used to test alternative organic oil fuels when its restoration is complete.
SBR founder Graham Lee is an advocate of alternative fuels, and as classmate Works No. 4483 was designed to burn oil from new, the Statfold Narrow Gauge Trust has decided to convert No. 3756 to burn organic oil fuels as part of its restoration.
Trust spokesman James Gorton said: “The ‘Tamar’ will be used as a testbed to experiment with alternative types of organic oil that could be used in the oil-burning process, instead of the traditional heavy fuel oil. The trust will look at organic oils not only from the UK but potentially from around the world to try and achieve our goal of a successful organic oil-burning steam locomotive.
“Here at the trust we are well aware of the environmental constraints that could be placed on the heritage railway sector, and also feel that we have a duty to try and lessen the impact on the environment of operating a steam locomotive.”
The ‘bottom end’ of the 1952-built former Cameroon Development Corporation locomotive was despatched to ‘Workshop X’ in Derbyshire in late May, for attention from the volunteer team that recently restored War Department Hunslet 4-6-0T No. 303, while the boiler and the rest of the locomotive remains at Statfold.
Meanwhile at ‘Workshop X’, restoration of ex-Penrhyn Quarry Avonside 0-4-0T Works No. 2066 Ogwen is ongoing, while the team signed an agreement with the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Trust on May 23 to construct a replica of L&B Manning Wardle 2-6-2T No. 759 Yeo (SR483).
Also based at ‘Workshop X’ is the replica North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways single Fairlie Gowrie, fundraising for which has begun in earnest following the project’s establishment as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SR494).