Ursula behind.
search for a site which took 3 years and covered the country from Northumbria to Cornwall. During our
search we met Trevor & Tony Stirland at Exmoor and asked them to be our engine builders. At the time
nobody else in the world made machines like theirs at a price which we could afford. We therefore
ordered the engine in 1992, before we had found Perrygrove, so the brief we gave them was in general
terms. We asked for a locomotive that could pull 100 people at 10 mph on the level and 8 mph uphill,
with a cab in which I could stand upright. They recommended an 0-6-0 configuration and built a mock-up
in plywood for us to approve. The only drawings were those for the boiler and the cylinder patterns.
When Spirit was finished in 1993 our friends at Ravenglass allowed us to try it out on their wonderful railway.
It stayed there for about a year and proved a resounding success, even taking over duties from the famous
River Esk for a while under the experienced hand of Peter van Zeller.
At Perrygrove Spirit has always been very popular and it is so easy to drive that an ab initio driver can be
trained very quickly.
Cylinders 5 ¼” x 7” Driving wheels 14” dia. Boiler x” dia.
Grate area 216 sq. in Tubes 1 ½” dia x 30 No. Working pressure 160 psi
Overall Length 11’x” Width 4’0” Height 6’ 4”
Weight approx 4 ¾ tons. We have never had an opportunity to weigh it accurately.
Somewhere in our files we have temporarily lost a drawing of this engine prepared by Andrew Graham when
it was at Ravenglass. We will post it here when we have found it.
Please contact us if you wish to reproduce it.
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