Barnes Billie returns to Rhyl

FIVE OF the six Barnes ‘Atlantics’ have been reunited at the Rhyl Miniature Railway, following the return of No. 104 Billie on June 28.

Designed by leading miniature locomotive engineer Henry Greenly and built by Albert Barnes & Co. circa 1922, Billie was one of six 15in gauge 4‑4‑2s built for the RMR. The design was an update of Greenly’s ‘Class 30’ Bassett‑Lowke ‘Atlantics’, capable of hauling trains of more than 80 people but still able to negotiate 80ft‑radius curves.

Although it was intended to work at the RMR, Billie was instead sold for use on the 15in gauge railway at Margate’s Dreamland amusement park, where it worked until the line’s closure in 1979. Billie returned to the RMR but never worked any public trains, and left in 1993 when it moved to Preston Steam Services in Kent. It moved to the Windmill Farm Railway in Lancashire in 2018 (SR484), where its overhaul was started by WFR operator Austin Moss, from whom the 4‑4‑2 has been purchased by the Rhyl Steam Preservation Trust.

Trust chairman Les Hughes, who has supported the railway since 1980, said: “This is a real achievement. It now means that five of the six locomotives are with us at Rhyl Miniature Railway. It is another chapter in a dream I have been following for the last 40 years.”

Barnes ‘Atlantics’ Nos. 101 Joan and 102 Railway Queen are currently operational at Rhyl, while No. 105 Michael is being reassembled following work on its boiler. No. 106 Billy (not to be confused with the similarly named No. 104) is owned by Rhyl Town Council and is on static display in the museum at Central station. No. 103 John is privately owned and not currently based at the RMR.