Littlehampton’s ‘new’ steam loco enters service
A change of wheel arrangement and gauge optimise locomotive for new home
LITTLEHAMPTON Miniature Railway (LMR) No. 4 Christopher was delivered in July 2020 following a two-year rebuild. The loco was built by Exmoor Steam Railway (ESR) as No. 191 in 1991, a 12¼in gauge 0-6-0T. Named Lorna Doone it was used on ESR’s own railway near Bratton Fleming, Devon.
It was rebuilt as a 10¼in 0-6-2T in 2000 and given new builder’s number 310, although the builder’s plates carried later read: Exmoor Steam Railway
191 of 26/10/1991 and 191RB of 4/2000. It ran at the Beale Railway, Pangbourne, Berkshire, where it was named JohnRemy, until expiry of its boiler certificate. It then went into storage at the Weston Park Railway, Staffordshire.
Acquired by LMR chief mechanical engineer Tom Sanders in 2017, another complete rebuild started the following year. The main frame, buffer beams, cylinders, motion and a few other parts were reused, but the wheels, axles, cab, tanks, smokebox etc. are all new, built to Tom’s design.
It is now 12¼in gauge again, but is a 2-6-2T, which is better for running at Littlehampton, a line that has equal forward and reverse operation. Tom estimates it has taken more than 11,000 hours of work to complete. The Christopher nameplates and WD lettering on the tank sides were applied in Spring 2021.