Over the weekend of the 5th and 6th November, the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway will play host to two locomotives from the Whistlestop Valley’s Kirklees Light Railway. The locomotives will be pulling trains as part of a mini gala weekend.
The visiting locomotives are Fox and Badger which are two small tank engines that were specially constructed for the Whistlestop Valley’s Kirklees Light Railway in West Yorkshire around 30 years ago. Fox is loosely based on a locomotive that was built in Leeds and exported to India. Badger is a saddle tank locomotive and draws on the design of locomotives built for industrial use in the early part of the 20th Century.
Both locomotives have been heavily modified, drawing on ideas and technology pioneered by Argentinian engineer L D Porta. Porta believed that the potential of steam locomotives was never fully developed before modernisation in the 1960s. Joining the visiting locomotives will be Katie from Ravenglass Railway Museum. Dating from 1896, Katie was restored to use in 2018 after being virtually dismantled 70 years before.
Tickets will be available online soon and on the day.