the Fairbourne Railway L&B loco
One of the largest models of an
L&B locomotive was built by the late David Curwen of All Cannings, nr.
Devizes.
Begun in 1977, it was
delivered to the short lived Réseau Guerlédan in Brittany, France in 1978.
The 5km line ran from Mur de Bretagne to Caurel and ran successfully until
falling victim to local politics. As with so many models, this one did not
carry Joy valve gear either. Curwen agreed to build the loco provided that
he could fit Walschaerts valve gear.....a 6"/ft Minitrix chassis, so to
speak! The locomotive was at that time named Jubilee.
The first steam at Mur de Bretagne station 1978
After a few initial
teething problems, the loco ran extremely well in France and ran the last
train before closure. The locomotive was then transported to the
Fairbourne Railway which was in the process of being converted to the same
gauge
of 12 1/4".
Here it was repainted in
Southern livery, renamed 'Yeo' and runs there to this day.
No 3 Camilla of
the FCAF (Argentina)
This 2-6-2t was built by
Winson Engineering of the UK in 1995. The outline loosely based on that of
the famous Manning Wardle 2-6-2t type used on the Lynton and Barnstaple
Railway in north Devon, UK. However the loco is in fact based very much
around the standard Winson "ZB" type produced for several different gauge
railways around the world.
No.3 proved to be a great example of "you get what you pay for" and
rapidly proved to be almost useless. From 1999 onwards, when engineer
Shaun McMahon arrived as fulltime engineer at FCAF, the locomotive has
been modified. To date the modifications have been fairly limited but have
still revolutionised the performance of 'Camila' turning it into a really
useful locomotive.
When photographed in October 2004 'Camila' was the sole operating loco on
FCAF which had just celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Further modernisation is planned as funds and time permit.
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