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Douglas is a narrow gauge steam locomotive. It was built by Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. Ltd. in 1918. It was originally used by the Air Service Constructional Corps (RAF) then was bought in 1949 by Abelson & Co. (Engineers) Ltd. who then sold it to the Talyllyn Railway in 1953.
After being handed over to the RAF on 21 February 1918 the engine was first used at Manston by the Admiralty Air Construction Service. [2] From October 1921 onwards Douglas spent most of its working life at RAF Calshot near Southampton. [2] In April 1949 it was sold at auction and bought for £60 by an engineering company called Abelson & Co (Engineers) Ltd. [2] In the early days of preservation, the Talyllyn Railway had contacted this and other similar firms, asking for redundant equipment. Abelson's offered the locomotive to the Talyllyn, and in return they named it after the donor, Douglas Abelson. [3] After presentation in 1953 the locomotive was retubed and converted from 2ft gauge at Griffin Foundry, Oldbury (with the conversion being paid for by Abelson) before being taken by road to Tywyn. [4] [2] At the same time as the conversion the engine's buffers were changed from a single centred buffer at each end to pairs of buffers. [5] The cab was also extended backwards by about 6 inches to allow the engine's lever brake to be replaced by a screw brake. [5]
Although smaller than the other locomotives on the Talyllyn Railway, it has performed well and was returned to service in 1995, with a new boiler fitted, and turned out in its old Air Ministry Works & Buildings livery.
In more recent years Douglas has been painted in standard Talyllyn Railway livery of deep bronze green lined with black borders and yellow lining; however as of 2010 it was painted red, acting as Duncan from the fictional Skarloey Railway. In February 2018, to mark the centenary of both the locomotive and the RAF, it was painted RAF blue. [6]
Douglas’s boiler ticket expired in January 2024 after which the engine was relocated to the Severn Valley Railway where it was placed on displayed in the engine house. [7]
All the steam-operated engines on the Talyllyn Railway appeared many times in The Railway Series books by the Rev. W. Awdry on the Skarloey Railway. In this case, Douglas was the basis for the character “Duncan”.
The Talyllyn Railway is a narrow-gauge railway in Wales running for 7+1⁄4 miles (12 km) from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. The line was opened in 1865 to carry slate from the quarries at Bryn Eglwys to Tywyn, and was the first narrow gauge railway in Britain authorised by Act of Parliament to carry passengers using steam haulage. Despite severe underinvestment, the line remained open, and in 1951 it became the first railway in the world to be preserved as a heritage railway by volunteers.
The Snowdon Mountain Railway is a narrow gauge rack-and-pinion mountain railway in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It is a tourist railway that travels for 4.7 miles (7.6 km) from Llanberis to the summit of Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales. A return journey, including the stop at the summit, takes 2½ hours.
The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum is a purpose-built museum dedicated to narrow-gauge railways situated at the Tywyn Wharf station of the Talyllyn Railway in Tywyn, Gwynedd, Wales.
The Eritrean Railway is the only railway system in Eritrea. It was constructed between 1887 and 1932 during the Italian Eritrea colony and connects the port of Massawa with Asmara. Originally it also connected to Bishia. The line was partly damaged by warfare in subsequent decades, but was rebuilt in the 1990s. Vintage equipment is still used on the line.
Calshot Spit is a one-mile long sand and shingle bank, near the village of Calshot, located on the southern bank of the open end of Southampton Water, on the south coast of England.
OO9, often also denoted as 009 or 00-9 and commonly pronounced as Double-Oh Nine, is a model railway scale and gauge combination of 4 mm scale and 9 mm gauge tracks, which models a prototype track gauge of 2 ft 3 in. It is a common choice in the United Kingdom for the modelling of narrow-gauge railways whose prototype gauges lie approximately between 2 ft and 2 ft 6 in. The 9 mm track gauge is used by N gauge model railways, a common commercial scale, which means that a selection of wheels, track, and mechanisms is readily available.
Russell is a narrow gauge steam locomotive originally built in 1906 for the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways (NWNGR), but most famously associated with the original Welsh Highland Railway (WHR), and now based at the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway in Porthmadog.
The K class was a branch line steam locomotive that ran on Victorian Railways in Australia from 1922 to 1979. Although its design was entirely conventional and its specifications unremarkable, the K class was in practice a remarkably versatile and dependable locomotive. It went on to outlast every other class of steam locomotive in regular service on the VR, and no fewer than 21 examples of the 53 originally built have survived into preservation.
The locomotives of the Isle of Man Railway were provided exclusively by Beyer, Peacock & Company of Manchester, England between 1873 and 1926; other locomotives that appear on this list were inherited as part of the take-over of the Manx Northern Railway and Foxdale Railway in 1905, when the railway also purchased two more locomotives from Beyer, Peacock. All the steam locomotives have or had the 2-4-0T wheel arrangement, apart from No. 15 Caledonia which is an 0-6-0T.
Talyllyn is a narrow gauge steam locomotive. It was built by Fletcher, Jennings & Co. in 1864 and is one of the oldest locomotives still in active service. It was delivered to the Talyllyn Railway on 24 September 1864 and continues to run on the railway.
This article gives details of the locomotives used on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, a 15 in narrow gauge preserved railway line running for 7 miles (11 km) from Ravenglass on the Cumbrian coast to Dalegarth near the village of Boot, in Eskdale.
Sea Lion is a narrow-gauge steam locomotive built in 1896 for the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man.
The South African Railways Class 91-000 of 1973 was a narrow-gauge diesel–electric locomotive.
Thorne Memorial Park Miniature Railway is a 7+1⁄4 in gauge and 5 in gauge miniature railway built in 1998 in Thorne, South Yorkshire, England, operating on two loops within the park.
Sir Haydn is a narrow gauge steam locomotive, built by Hughes's Locomotive & Tramway Engine Works, Loughborough in 1878. It operated on the Corris Railway in Wales, until closure in 1948, and since 1951 has operated on the nearby Talyllyn Railway. It has carried the operating number 3 under four successive owners.
Edward Thomas is a narrow gauge steam locomotive. Built by Kerr Stuart & Co. Ltd. at the California Works, Stoke-on-Trent in 1921, it was delivered new to the Corris Railway where it ran until 1948. After that railway closed, the locomotive was brought to the Talyllyn Railway in 1951, then restored, and remains in working order at the heritage railway. It has carried the operating number 4 under four successive owners.
Tom Rolt is a narrow gauge steam locomotive constructed by the Talyllyn Railway, using parts from an Andrew Barclay locomotive built in 1949 for Bord na Móna.
Fawley Tunnel, or Fawley transmission tunnel, is a 3-metre (9.8 ft) diameter, 2-mile (3.2 km) long tunnel under Southampton Water between Fawley Power Station and Chilling near Warsash. It carries the cables of two 400kV circuits of the National Grid.
