Ravenglass

From Sodor Island Forums

The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway was orignally opened in 1875 as a three foot gauge mineral railway, carring iron ore from the mines in Eskdale to the junction with the Furness Railway at the Roman port of Ravenglass. The line went into bankruptcy and closed for good in 1913. However, all was not lost.

In 1915, the famous model-maker, W.J. Bassett-Lowke bought the land and built his own 15 inch gauge line, which once again ran from Ravenglass to Boot. The line was truncated to Beckfoot because of the steepness of the climb into Boot village, and was then extended once again to Dalegarth, and it has remained in the same location for the last eighty years.

There were granite quarries at both Beckfoot and Murthwaite, and the products of these were taken to the crushing plant that was set up at Murthwaite. Once the stone was crushed, it was transported by rail back to Ravenglass and transferred to the standard gauge railway.

When the granite business finished in 1952, the future looked grim for the railway. It struggled on with five ageing locomotives and was put up for sale at auction in 1960. The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway was formed and they bought the line, and since then, neither the Railway Company nor the Preservation Society have looked back!

There are eight steam engines on the line, and ten internal combustion locomotives. Of these, four steam and three diesel engines were used by the Awdry family for the Arlesdale Railway.

Skarloey has written a number of stories about the railway in his series, The Cumbrian Engines, and these feature the majority of the railway fleet and have even earned the approval of the railway staff and volunteers!

Stock List

Number	Name	Livery	Locomotive type	Wheel arrangement	Builder	Year built
3	River Irt	Mid Green	Steam	0-8-2	Sir Arthur Heywood	1894
7	River Esk	Blackberry Black	Steam	2-8-2	Davey Paxman & Co.	1923
9	River Mite	Indian Red	Steam	2-8-2	Clarkson & Sons	1967
10	Northern Rock	Muscat Green	Steam	2-6-2	Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway	1976
11	Bonnie Dundee	Bronze Green	Steam	0-4-2	Kerr Stuart	1900
N/A	Synolda	NGR Blue	Steam	4-4-2	Bassett-Lowke	1912
N/A	Flower of the Forest	NER Green	Steam	0-2-2	Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway	1985
6	Katie	Heywood Green	Steam	0-4-0T	Sir Arthur Heywood	1894
ICL 1	ICL No. 1 Bunny	Green	Internal Combustion	4-2-2	Francis Theakston	1922
ICL 4	Perkins	Yellow	Diesel	0-4-4	Muir-Hill	1929
ICL 5	Quarryman	Fordson Green	Internal Combustion	0-4-0	Muir-Hill	1927
ICL 7	Shelagh of Eskdale	Two-tone Green	Diesel	4-6-4	Severn-Lamb	1969
ICL 8	Lady Wakefield	DRS Blue	Diesel	B-B	Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway	1980
ICL 9	Cyril	Unlined Green	Diesel	0-4-0	R.A. Lister	1932
N/A	Greenbat	Dark Green	Battery-Electric	0-4-0	Greenwood & Batley	1957
N/A	Blacolvesley	Light Green	Petrol	4-4-4	Bassett-Lowke	1911
ICL 10	Les	Dark Green	Diesel	0-4-0	R.A. Lister	1960
ICL 11	Douglas Ferreira	Indian Red	Diesel	B-B	TMA Engineering	2005