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Introduction
War survivor
Division of labour
No glow
Return trip

When the Salvage Squad first see the Simplex Narrow Gauge Loco, it is gathering dust in the corner of an engine shed at the Moseley Railway Trust. They have just two months to get it back on the rails.

Two years into the 1914-18 war, with conventional vehicles getting bogged down in the shell-churned mud, it was becoming extremely difficult to transport supplies to the front lines. In desperation the War Office turned to light railways. A new 24-inch gauge was designed and 1,000 miles of track, 1,000 locomotives and 2,800 wagons were ordered.

By 1918, the railway had over 2,000 miles of track, employed over 60,000 men and was delivering 270,000 tonnes of supplies to the front lines every month.

The Squad's loco was built in 1918 for use on the Western Front in northern France. It is a simple and sturdy design with a 40 horsepower petrol engine, a gearbox with two forward and two reverse gears, four tonnes of body armour and four wheels.

It was in a shipment awaiting transport to France when the Armistice was signed, so it survived when most of the other engines were scrapped at the end of the war. It was eventually sold to a municipal sewage works in Leeds where it worked for 50 years. When the works closed in 1980, the hard working and historic little engine was saved by a group of enthusiasts and stored, awaiting restoration.

Although it is a simple design, the loco has not run for over 20 years, so the Salvage Squad really have their work cut out. Claire removes and repaints the heavyweight armour and researches the original markings and colours. Jerry takes on the job of rebuilding the engine and gearbox, while Axel works on remachining the worn out wheels.

During her research, Claire discovers the specifications of the loco's original exhaust end plates. In order to ensure that the red hot petrol engine exhausts did not give away the location of the loco at night, it was fitted with an over-sized exhaust that would never glow. When the loco started to work at the sewage works and was no longer a target, the wartime exhaust was scrapped.

Claire orders a pattern for the exhaust end plate and takes it to a foundry to be cast. The pattern contains a cavity that has been moulded into the exact shape of the exhaust plate. The pattern is packed with moulding sand, which sets solid after about 20 minutes. The pattern is then removed, leaving a replica in the sand, which contains a cavity the same shape as the end plate. This is called the mould.

The mould is constructed in two halves that are joined together once the pattern has been removed. With the help of a casting expert, Claire pours the molten metal into the mould. After a two-hour wait they crack open the mould, which contains a perfect casting of a Simplex exhaust plate.

When the loco rattles along the last remaining stretch of narrow gauge track on the Somme in France, Claire knows that all her painstaking attention to detail has been worthwhile.