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 Polar Bear at Amberley Museum Railway | |||||||||||||||||
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Polar Bear is a narrow-gauge steam locomotive built in 1905 by W. G. Bagnall for the Groudle Glen Railway. It is now preserved and runs on the Amberley Museum Railway.
The Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man is a 2 ft (610 mm) gauge tourist railway opened in 1896. It was originally worked by a single locomotive supplied by W.G. Bagnall, called Sea Lion . The railway proved popular, and in 1905 a second, slightly larger version of the same design was ordered from Bagnall. This locomotive was named Polar Bear. [1] From 1905 onwards, Sea Lion and Polar Bear worked all the trains on the railway.
The railway was closed between 1915 and 1918. The two Bagnalls were taken out of service in the 1920s, when they were replaced by a pair of battery locomotives. The electric locomotives quickly wore out, and Polar Bear and Sea Lion were returned to traffic. [1] The railway was closed for the duration of World War II and, when the line reopened in the late 1940s, only Polar Bear was returned to traffic. The Groudle Glen Railway closed in 1962.
Polar Bear was sold to the Brockham Museum Trust in 1967. In 1982 it passed, with the rest of the Brockham collection, to the Amberley Museum Railway, where it was returned to traffic in 1983. [2] Polar Bear's boiler was condemned around 1988, returning to service with a new boiler in 1993. Its boiler certificate expired at the end of 2010; [2] with a retube and work on the firebox being required before a return to service. Since being based at Amberley, Polar Bear has returned to the Groudle Glen on three occasions (1993, 1996 and 2005) to visit.
Polar Bear was stripped down for overhaul in early 2011. The boiler was moved to Chatham for overhaul, with mechanical work being undertaken in-house at Amberley. The boiler was returned to Amberley in January 2012. Polar Bear was relaunched on 13 July 2013 by BBC newsreader and railway enthusiast Nicholas Owen. [2]
Polar Bear made its fourth visit to the Groudle Glen Railway since it was preserved in late July 2016. After its two week stay there, it returned home to Amberley museum.
In January 2013 the Groudle Glen Railway announced a plan to construct a new locomotive to be named Brown Bear. Brown Bear will be built using the original Bagnall drawings for Polar Bear (Works No. 1781 of 1905) which have largely survived. Once the locomotive is complete it will operate alongside its older sister Sea Lion allowing the railway to accurately represent period from 1905 through until the outbreak of the Second World War when these diminutive locomotives would have been in service together daily during the busy summer months.
Polar Bear was an updated and more powerful version of Sea Lion incorporating a number of modifications. Some of these such as the change from Baguley's modified valve gear to Bagnall Price gear can be put down to changes in key personnel at W.G Bagnall's but others such as the larger diameter cylinders, increased grate area and increased driving wheel diameter were probably specified in light of 9 years experience with Sea Lion in service. The most obvious visible difference between the two locomotives of course is the change from round to rectangular spectacle plates in the front cab sheet which improved the forward vision for the driver.
As Polar Bear was the last locomotive ordered by the original railway company and is arguably a more advanced design Brown Bear will be built as close as modern manufacturing techniques will allow to Polar Bear’s design. The original locomotives made extensive use of cast components and while the new build will use castings where patterns are already available some one-off components will be fabricated.
Working on the assumption that major components will be manufactured off site by a series of specialist firms before coming together for final assembly at Groudle the total cost of the build is expected to be in the region of £50,000.00 with completion expected within 5 years
Amberley Museum is an open-air industrial heritage museum at Amberley, near Arundel in West Sussex, England. The museum is owned and operated by Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre, a not-for-profit company and registered charity, and has the support of an active Friends organisation. The items in the Museums collection are held by The Amberley Museum Trust
The Groudle Glen Railway is a 2 ft narrow gauge railway near Onchan in the Isle of Man, on the boundary of Onchan and Lonan, which is owned and operated by a small group of enthusiastic volunteers and operates on summer Sundays; May to September and Wednesday evenings in July and August along with a number of annual special events.
The East Anglian Railway Museum is located at Chappel and Wakes Colne railway station in Essex, England, which is situated on the former Great Eastern Railway branch line from Marks Tey to Sudbury. Services on the Sudbury Branch Line are operated by Abellio Greater Anglia.
W. G. Bagnall was a locomotive manufacturer from Stafford, England which was founded in 1875 and operated until it was taken over in 1962 by English Electric.
Polar Bear may refer to:
The Great Laxey Mine Railway was originally constructed to serve the Isle of Man's Great Laxey Mine, a lead mine located in Laxey. The 19 in gauge railway runs from the old mine entrance to the washing floors along a right of way that passes through the Isle of Man's only remaining railway tunnel under the 3 ft gauge Victorian Manx Electric Railway and the main A2 Douglas to Ramsey coast road.
The Baguley valve gear is a type of steam engine valve gear invented by Ernest E. Baguley, the Chief Draughtsman of the W.G. Bagnall company of locomotive manufacturers and patented in 1893. It was used by Bagnall during Baguley's time there, then by his own company of Baguley Cars Ltd.
Groudle, or Groudle Glen, a glen on the outskirts of Onchan on the Isle of Man, is formed in a valley leading to the sea at the small port of the same name. It is one of the officially-listed Manx National Glens.
This is a general list of rolling stock and locomotives currently or formerly on the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man.
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.
Doll is a 2 ft gauge 0-6-0T steam locomotive based at the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway in Bedfordshire.
The Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre Railway is a 2 ft narrow gauge railway based at the Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre, Amberley, West Sussex. It has a varied collection of engines and rolling stock ranging from 18 in gauge to 5 ft 3 in gauge. It operates passenger trains at the museum using a mixture of steam, internal combustion and battery-electric locomotives.
Sea Lion Rocks is a railway station and outer terminus of the Groudle Glen Railway in the Isle of Man. It served as the outer terminus from 1896 until 1939 and again from 1992 to date.
Sea Lion is a steam locomotive built in 1896 to supply the motive power to the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man and the locomotive still provides the main traction there today. The locomotive was built by W.G. Bagnall & Co., Stafford and delivered to the line in May of that year, providing sole motive power until joined in 1905 by sister locomotive Polar Bear. When delivered to the railway, the locomotive carried an olive green livery with vermilion and yellow lining and the name carried on the side water tank in gold leaf with blue shadowing, with distinctive round "spectacle" cab windows back and front. These were changed over to rectangular windows very early in the engine's career to improve driver visibility however. One distinctive feature was a displacement lubricator mounted atop the highly polished brass dome. The locomotive was fitted with unusual valve gear patented by E.E. Baguley and is one of only four locomotives to remain in existence with this. By the 1920 season the locomotive was deemed too costly for repair and the line purchased two battery electric locomotives that inherited their steam engine names. The modern engines proved to be financially disastrous and within a few years "Sea Lion" had been returned to the works for re-build. It continued to operate the line until closure at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.
Annie is a steam locomotive that operates on the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man.
Dolphin and Walrus are diesel locomotives currently on the Groudle Glen Railway.
Polar Bear was a 2 ft gauge battery-electric locomotive built by Wingrove & Rogers in 1921 as works no. 314 for the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man. Together with its sister, Sea Lion, they were intended to replace two Bagnall steam locos of the same names. The locos were not a success and, despite Polar Bear being rebuilt with bogies and a battery truck, the steam locos were reboilered and returned to traffic. Polar Bear was eventually scrapped acround 1926.
Townsend Hook is a 3 ft 2+1⁄4 in gauge Fletcher, Jennings & Co. 0-4-0T steam locomotive built in 1880 for the Dorking Greystone Lime Co. as works no. 172L. Townsend Hook is cosmetically restored and based at Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre, West Sussex.
The Taff Vale Railway O1 class was a class of 0-6-2T steam tank locomotives designed by Tom Hurry Riches and introduced to the Taff Vale Railway in 1894.
Sea Lion was a 2-foot gauge battery-electric locomotive built by Wingrove & Rogers in 1921 as works no. 313 for the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man. Together with its sister, Polar Bear, it was intended that they would replace two Bagnall steam locos of the same names. However, the battery locos were not hugely successful, with Sea Lion being scrapped in 1922 following an incident where it fell down the side of the Groudle Glen.