Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway 0-8-2 River Irt. Built in 1894, and 22 feet long, this locomotive is in service on the 15-inch gauge heritage line in the Lake District. Originally known as Muriel, according to the line's own website she is "the oldest working 15-inch gauge locomotive in the world but she still hauls heavy trains capably." She was built by a real enthusiast. Richard Clay writes,
Most visitors probably don’t realise the significance of this little loco, but it is one of the pioneers of the ‘minimum’ gauge, having been built by Sir Arthur Heywood, no less. When the derelict R&ER was revived after the First World War by W.J. Bassett-Lowke, several of Heywood’s Duffield Bank Railway locos were used, including an 0-8-0 tank locomotive called Muriel. After the original boiler wore out it was rebuilt as a miniature locomotive and renamed River Irt. In the 1980s it was rebuilt again, with a narrow-gauge outline; the chassis, however, is still pure Heywood. [44]
Sir Arthur Percival Heywood, of Duffield Bank, Derbyshire (1849-1916) was the 3rd Baronet Heywood, whose life after his marriage in 1872 was devoted to building locomotives at his workshop at Duffield Bank, near Derby. From 1874-1916 he built six of these narrow-gauge miniature locomotives, "ostensibly with a view to establishing that gauge for commercial and military use" (see "Arthur Percival Heywood").
The line itself also has a long history. It dates from 1873, and David Ross tells us that it "was originally a narrow-gauge minerals-hauling line, which closed in 1913 and reopened in 1915, rebuilt to a miniature gauge for visitor traffic" (145).
Photographs by Colin Price. Text by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Bibliography
"Arthur Percival Heywood."
Clay, Jonathan. Locomotive Portraits. Barnsley, S. Yorks.: Pen & Sword, 2015.
"Our Steam Engines." Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. Web. 22 December 2022.
Ross, David. British Steam Railways. Bath: Parragon, 2005.
Created 22 December 2022