Re: Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway

This is a twelve and one quarter inch gauge (i.e., a little under half size) model of one of the Manifold Valley locos which I took back in the summer of 1984 in the engine house at the Fairbourne Railway in Mid-Wales. The full sized versions must have been very pretty machines.

At the time the Fairbourne had operated for many years as a fifteen inch gauge line but it had just changed hands. The new owner brought this stock over from France where he had previously run a short tourist line and during the following winter the Fairbourne was reguaged to twelve and one quarter inches. Sadly the Manifold Valley loco never ran there in this form as it was rebuilt to resemble a quite different type of loco.

The saddle tank loco behind it is 0-6-4ST "Beddgelert", again a one half size model of an early loco on the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway, a predecessor of today's Welsh Highland Railway. It still runs on the Fairbourne. Outside the shed in the far left of the photo is fifteen inch gauge 2-4-2 "Katie". It left the Fairbourne in 1985 after the gauge conversion.

Best wishes,

James Waite

Windsor, UK