‘Alpha’ 0-6-0PT, built by Hunslet Clarke in 1922.

Yesterday was the Statfold Barn Railway Enthusiasts Day. It was a lovely sunny day and it was soooo good to see narrow gauge steam locos running in the sunshine.

This was my first visit to Statfold Bard and it’s an impressive set up. The main station is situated near the Statfold Engineering workshops. The 2 foot (60cm) gauge line leads downhill to an intermediate station (above) located next to the museum and roundhouse, then continues through a reverse curve to a balloon loop. The drivers are held in the balloon loop then get the opportunity to open the regulator and run the locos back up hill. This creates some lovely exhaust notes!

When they were not running on the ‘mainline’ the locos were held near the engineering works. The atmosphere is very relaxed and visitors could get close to the locos.

‘Cloister’, an ex-Dinorwic Quarry Hunslet built by Hunslet Engine Company in 1891, from the Hampshire Narrow Gauge Railway Trust.

Another Hampshire Narrow Gauge Railway Trust loco, ‘Wendy’ a Quarry Bagnall, built 1919, used at the Dorothea Quarry in North Wales.

The Statfold team were running most of the trains double headed or with bankers, so there were lots of locos running. Here’s Wendy, heading uphill after the baloon loop, double heading a train with the quarry Hunslet ‘Jack Lane’, built in 2005 at Statfold.

‘Statfold’ another Quarry Hunslet, built at Statfold in 2005, heading ‘Sragi No. 1’ built by Krauss in Munich in 1899.

Largest loco of the day, the very special K1, the world’s first Garratt locomotive, built by Beyer Peacock in 1909 for the North East Dundas Tramway in Tasmania.

Static but very elegant, this Sandy River & Rangeley style Parlor Car. The original was built in 1901, this replica was built in 2004 by the Ffestiniog Railway.

Equally elegant (in my opinion), ‘Isibutu’ built by Bagnall in 1945 for the Tongaat Sugar Company in South Africa, with a rather unusual 4-4-0 wheel arangement.

Finally, ‘Howard’, by Hunslet Engine Co in 1936, originally built to the Kerr Stuart ‘Brazil’ design.

Oh, yes. Statfold has a tram too. On such a hot day a ride on the upper deck was very pleasant.

The Statfold team did an excellent job of organising the event. This year they’ve spread the event over two days to reduce the number of people on site at any time and are operating well organised social distancing measures.

It’s definitely worth a visit!