Over the years the museum has collected a wide range of locomotives, some from the more common British makers like Ruston and Motor Rail but some also from lesser-known makers.
The Museum’s first ever locomotive was a Ruston and Hornsby w/n 354013 of 1953 which arrived in July 1970. It was a 20DL Diesel loco and was 20″ gauge. This came from the British Steel Corporation’s Crowle Brickworks in Lincolnshire. As the first locomotive, it was named “Moseley”. The purchase price was £50 but this did include other railway equipment. An option on a further Ruston at £35 was on offer, but this was not taken up at the time. The loco was the mainstay of operations until 1971 when Colin Saxton purchased the second loco from the Brickworks (RH187057/1937). These two locos were joined later by a 20/26 petrol Motor Rail Locomotive (MR7066/1938).
In 1976 a local enthusiast by the name of Kevin Walsh brought the first 24″ gauge loco to Cheadle, and the railway became mixed gauge. Soon after this more 24″ gauge equipment turned up and so the society standardised at this gauge. By July 1977 the mixed gauge had been removed. No. 6 was regauged to 24″ gauge, but unfortunately Moseley, being a Ruston under 24″ gauge, would have been prohibitively expensive to regauge due to the gearbox having a different, longer, output shaft arrangement to allow the chains to be outside the wheels. As a result the loco was sold to Chemical & Insulating Co Ltd where it worked until 1988, when it was preserved for the second time by the Darlington Railway Preservation Society. In recent times the engine suffered major trouble and it was decided to replace the engine, a suitable Ruston 2VSH engine was sourced and this has been fitted to the loco but is not yet operational. The loco was placed on loan to the MRT in Late 2019 and was reassembled and cosmetically restored for the MRT 50th gala. The MRT has restored the loco to full running order; it now awaits the construction of a 20″ gauge railway to be able to “stretch its legs”!
