“Edgar” was built new and completed in early 2018 by North Bay Railway Engineering Services. NBRES were the engineering off-shoot of the well-known North Bay Railway, a 20 inch gauge line at Scarborough. The loco was first unveiled to the public when displayed, incomplete, at the Warley Model Railway exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham, in November 2017. The design of the locomotive is based on a “Decauville” Type 1 locomotive. The loco carries reproduction plates for a Decauville loco, serial no.684. This would have been the next locomotive had Decauville continued in production.
Paul Decauville founded the French company which bore his name. He was an innovator in the application of light railways to industrial, military and pleasure purposes. He pioneered the use of ready-made sections of light, narrow gauge track fastened to steel sleepers; this track was portable and could be disassembled and transported very easily. The first Decauville railway used 400 mm (15 3⁄4 in) gauge; Decauville later refined his invention and switched to 500 mm (19 3⁄4 in) and 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) gauge. Such track is still frequently referred to as “Decauville”. The Decauville company came to prominence by creating a 500mm gauge line for the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris.
The locomotive is named in memory of the owner’s father, a lifelong steam fan. It departed from Apedale on 8 February 2023, and is now based at the Tacot de Lacs railway near Paris.
