Ashover Light Railway 4-6-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class Joan (Locobase 4984)

Data from Locobase 4985 and the history on the Ashworth Light Railway Society's website at [], last accessed 3 August 2021. See also Roger Farnsworth's blog post on the ALR at [], last accessed 3 August 2021.

The railway website places the ALR in Derbyshire. It was opened only in 1925 and according to Gareth Roberts, "remained practically unknown exept to the local inhabitants who beseiged the little railway in their thousands at weekends and holiday times."

ALRS's history explains the early enthusiasm for the ALR. Its inaugural passenger train left on 6 April 1925, it notes and add: "Public running began the following day and the railway enjoyed a long spell of success. All trains during that summer of 1925 were heavily loaded as people began to explore the countryside which had been so inaccessible before."

But ALR's passenger service rapidly gave way to bus travel and usage dropped considerably by 1928 and by 1930, only three one-carriage trains ran each day. Regular passenger runs were discontinued entirely in September 1936. Freight traffic and occasional passenger runs contineud on the line until 31 March 1950 amid "much local sadness", according to Gareth Roberts.

These little Ten-wheeler tanks began life as War Department Light Railway (WDLR) locomotives; see Locobase 4985. They are listed in order of their works numbers:

44370 (WDLR 525), 44695 (790), 44720 (815), 44737 (832), 44743 (838), and 45227 (645). All were named after General Jackson's children.

After World War I ended, General Jackson of the Clay Cross Company bid 1,000 pounds for 4 of them (525, 645, 815, 838).. Turned down at first, the bid was later gratefully accepted. Two more -- 790, 832) arrived in 1925, purchased from Thomas W Ward for 600 pounds.

Farnsworth notes that the ALR was laid down

Joan (815), Peggy (838), Hummy (645) went into service, but Guy (525) needed repairs. He was sidelined in favor of the two later engines -- Guy II (790) and Bridget (832) -- and later used for parts.

Roberts comments on a bad quality of these otherwise sturdy and reliable engines. They had, he notes, "exceptionally wide side tanks ...If [the engines] were stood on canted track for any length of time (i.e., one rail higher than the other, common practice on curves) water would run from one tank to the other via the balancing pipe and the weight of the heavier tank could tip the engine off the track, something which occurred several times during construction of the lines."