THE BALDWIN IS BACK!
An important gap Britain’s railway and military history will be filled at the Leighton Buzzard Railway later this year, with the launch of War Department Light Railways No 778, following a major overhaul.
Built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in the USA in 1917, it was one of 495 similar locomotives supplied to work on the thousands of miles of narrow-gauge tracks which supplied the trenches in France and Belgium. After war service, it worked in India until the 1980s.
The last British survivor was scrapped in 1951, after the closure of the Ashover Light Railway in Derbyshire. No 778 will therefore provide a living link with the past, that has not been experienced for over 50 years.
After a static appearance at the Indian event on 7th May (see below), it will work in public for the first time later in the summer—watch this space!
