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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.
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. [1] 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; [1] 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. [1]
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 complete the locomotive will operate alongside the older Sea Lion, allowing the railway to accurately represent the period from 1905 through until the outbreak of World War II, when these locomotives would have been used together daily during the busy summer months.
Polar Bear was an updated and more powerful version of Sea Lion incorporating several modifications. Some of these, such as the change from Baguley's modified valve gear to Bagnall Price gear, can be attributed to changes in key personnel at Bagnall's; others, such as the larger-bore cylinders, increased grate area and increased driving wheel diameter were likely based on the nine years of experience with Sea Lion. The most obvious visible difference between the two 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 to Polar Bear's design as reasonably possible. 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.
Assuming that major components will be manufactured off-site by a series of specialist firms before being brought to Groudle for assembly, the build's total cost is expected to be about £50,000, with completion expected within five years.
The valve gear of a steam engine is the mechanism that operates the inlet and exhaust valves to admit steam into the cylinder and allow exhaust steam to escape, respectively, at the correct points in the cycle. It can also serve as a reversing gear. It is sometimes referred to as the "motion".
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.
The polar bear is a large bear native to the Arctic and nearby areas.
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.
The NZR KA class of 1939 was a class of mixed traffic 4-8-4 steam locomotives that operated on New Zealand's railway network. They were built after the success of the K class to meet the increasing traffic demands of the New Zealand Railways Department. The locomotives first appeared with distinctive streamlining, mainly to hide their ACFI feedwater heater systems.
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.
The Amberley Museum Railway is a 2 ft narrow gauge railway based at Amberley Museum, 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.
Headland Station was the temporary terminus of the Groudle Glen Railway in the Isle of Man between 1983 and 1991, after which time the line was reinstated to its original terminus at Sea Lion Rocks. It also served as the terminus between 1950 and 1962.
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 narrow-gauge steam locomotive built in 1896 for the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man.
Annie is a steam locomotive that operates on the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man.
Dolphin and Walrus are diesel locomotives that are operated 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 in 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.
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 Sea Lion, and Polar Bear, two Bagnall steam locomotivess of the same names. However, the battery locomotives were not hugely successful, with Sea Lion being scrapped in 1922 following an incident where it fell down the side of the Groudle Glen.
The Brockham Railway Museum was a 2 ft narrow gauge railway based at the site of the Brockham Limeworks, near Dorking, Surrey. When it closed in 1982, the majority of the collection was moved to the Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre where it formed the nucleus of the Amberley Museum Railway.