The locomotives
Complete but battered, and in need of thorough restoration, No 778 poses at Page’s Park depot,
Leighton Buzzard Railway, shortly after its arrival.
War Department Light Railway No 778 was built in 1917 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, USA (works number 44656). It was one of 495 4-6-0 tank engines built by Baldwin, for use on the vast network of 2ft (610mm) gauge lines laid to supply the World War 1 battlefields, in northern France, with food, ordnance and manpower.
After the war, it was one of 50 engines exported to the North Western Railway of India, becoming No 16 in their fleet. It was sold to a dealer in 1933, and later worked on the Daraula Light Railway. Fifty years later, it was withdrawn from service at its final home in India, the Upper India Sugar Mills, Khatauli, Uttar Pradesh, and sent to England for preservation.
Initially at the Chalk Pits Museum, Amberley, Sussex, it is now based at the Leighton Buzzard Railway, Bedfordshire, from where the restoration project was directed.
War Department Light Railway No 2182 was built by the Motor Rail & Tramcar Company of Bedford, England (works number 461), also in 1917, one of only 27 of their 40hp petrol-engined locomotives with full armour plating for service close to the Front. It is believed to be the only survivor still in original mechanical condition.
Two locomotives of this type were bought by the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway for sand trains in the 1920s, but were scrapped in 1959. No 2182 went to the Furness Brick & Tile Company near Barrow, where part of its armour was removed for practicality. It was preserved privately in the 1960s, and moved to the Museum of Army Transport at Beverley, Yorkshire, in 1985, the missing armour having been replaced with wooden replicas.
After the closure of the Beverley site, it was one of several narrow-gauge items offered on loan to the Leighton Buzzard Railway by the National Army Museum, and was donated formally in 2008. The wooden parts had, unfortunately, been damaged irreparably during the move, and these have been replaced by new replicas made at Leighton Buzzard.
Early in 2009, ownership of No 2182 was transferred to the Greensand Railway Museum Trust, as a first step towards the launch of an appeal to fund its full restoration.
Last updated 6th April 2009
© 2009 The Greensand Railway Museum Trust
