Crowle Peatland Railway 3 ft Gauge Simplex & Schoma locos's

On the 28th of February a 3ft gauge simplex now owned by Crowle & Thorne Moor Peat Railway Soceity was moved to temporary storage for the time being till we sort out the location for the loco to be restored, it has been sat outside for 20 years maybe. The cab was raised to give the driver better visibility, we also own the small wagon and some other peat extraction machinery.







There is more photos on our Flickr group we also have a facebook page. https://www.flickr.com/groups/ctmprs/pool/
https://www.facebook.com/CrowleThorneMoorsPeatRailwaySociety

 

Brave!

 

It will be interesting once we strip it all down and find out if there was a problem with the engine. Apparently it had engine failure but we are thinking it might have just been taking out of use because of newer locos.

 

any of those newer loco survive? I know a good home for anything 3 foot gauge!

 

Also, here in Sweden, there are some Swedish-three foot gauge heritage lines (actually 891mm, but that's just a tweak!) which they could run on!

 

any loco or rolling stock for sale that you know of Felix. Photos or links would be kool

 

Check out my photos (mostly of Lakvik on the RLJ, and some of Vadstena castle near the WFJ) at https://www.flickr.com/photos/59450268@N02/
Felix supports both those (the first is 600mm and the second is 891mm).

 

As far as I know there is no other 3 ft gauge railways in England?

 

The three Schomas survive in Norfolk at Great Eastern Traction http://www.greateasterntraction.co.uk/ and are for sale as far as I know.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewkmurray/sets/72157633518037733/

 

I have a interest in Swedish locos in case it wasn't obvious by my profile picture I have seen a video of a SJ L18p 3147 I'm not sure if thats Swedish Three foot gauge though.

 

They have been sold one of them might be coming back to us as we are running on a site very close to where these locos worked, Our Simplex worked on the same rails as the Schoma locos and bringing one back is what we hope to do.

 

Yup, AFAIK that loco is 891mm

 

I'm not sure if there is any in private ownership but I think this is one of the only 3 ft gauge Simplex's left. The only sites that used 3 ft gauge was Swinefleet and Hatfield Peatworks. Our Simplex is from the Swinefleet site although it did work at Hatfield.

 

Ken, of the 3 Schomas, only 2 of them went to Great Eastern Traction, the third one - Schoma 5220/1991 - is preserved, stuffed and mounted, on display at The Scott Company's Hatfield Works along with one of the slave units. Great Eastern Traction took the other 2 slave units as well.

Cheers

Alan

 

Hello William,

I don't know of your future expansion plans and loco acquisition policy, but it may well be worthwhile contacting Bord Na Mona as they have quite a few out of use locos lying around at various bog sites in Ireland. A fair bit has been cleared out over the past few years, however something viable may still exist. Also, Bord Na Mona can be, shall we say, charitable when it comes to preservation of their locos. Keep us informed of your progress with your project, it is very interesting.

Cheers

Alan

 

I had looked at the Bord Na Mona locos in Ireland it is something I might suggest in future, as far as I know at the moment all we plan and hope to own are a the Simplex and Schoma, getting some coaches might be useful as well and finding some peat wagons. The Schoma outside Scott's still has its engine and could be used to my knowledge but Scott's would rather keep it. The real "The Thomas Buck" Is in fact one of the Schoma's that was up for sale. There is a dvd called Peat Railways in England and you see our Simplex next to a heavily modified Diema loco in a siding.

 

It would certainly be nice to see something running again at Swinefleet, I have fond memories of exploring the moors in the 80s and early 90s, trying to locate all the locos.

 

Give it a few years you might be seeing locos along Crowle side of the moors and possibly in future running on Thorne side near Swinefleet. Did you ever get to visit Top Bank where they maintained the locos there was a workshop there.

 

Ha! My mistake re: number of locos going to Great Eastern. I bashed off that note without double checking. However, I have it that all three slave units went to Great Eastern. I could be wrong, but the photos I have seen of the remaining loco at Hatfield (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorne...r/File:Schöma-5131-at-Hatfield-Peat-Works.jpg for instance) show it with a simple flat wagon not a slave unit.

 

I think that you are right with that Ken. I visited Great eastern a couple of years ago, I'll check my notes and photos later.

cheers

Alan