Horton Light Railway 0-4-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class Crossness (Locobase 8018)

Data from [], reproduction of C G Down's article "Horton Estate Light Railway" in the Industrial Railway Record, No 13, pp 11-15, 29 (March 1967). Works number was 994.

Downs says that Crossness arrived newly built on the rails of Foster & Dicksee, contractors for the light railway serving the Horton hospital complex then under construction in the greater London area. But G Alliez, responding to Downs's article in IRR #18, offers a different account: "CROSSNESS was not new to Ewell but was delivered to the London County Council, Works Department, Abbey Wood SE&CR Station, for the Southern Outfall Sewer Works at Crossness. The loco driver at Horton informed me over thirty years ago that CROSSNESS arrived. there in 1913 although he was not sure if it had come direct from Crossness. James Dickson, contractor, constructed railway sidings at Horton for the London County Council in 1913 and this would agree with CROSSNESS arriving in 1913."

So the question would then arise - did Crossness ever work for Foster & Dicksee?

In any event, after 1913, the little saddle tank served the Horton Light Railway until the mid-1930s. A photograph suggests to Locobase that it was rather more a pannier tank like those popular on the Great Western than a curved saddle tank. It was then replaced by Hendon; see Locobase 8019.

Class Sherwood (Locobase 8020)

Data from [], reproduction of C G Down's article "Horton Estate Light Railway" in the Industrial Railway Record, No 13, pp 11-15, 29 (March 1967).

This locomotive was the Stephenson Works #7349. It was also the least successful of the engines that operated on the Hospital's light line. According to Down, "...Sherwood was totally unsuited for the long hard run. She was a poor steamer [possibly because of the small grate] and after only a few months' running her slide bars had become badly worn."

The Railway was broken up in 1950, but Sherwood was not immediately scrapped. F Wadkins (Boilers) Ltd owned the locomotive and later sold it to Calder & Mersey Extract Co Ltd in Widnes. See the Durham Mining Museum' website [], accessed 22 December 2006, for a photo of sister 7347 as she worked the Dorman Long Steel yard as their 183 in July 1964. Another in the series - 7346 - is shown in the shed at Seaham Harbour in the same month and year ([])