7 1/4 inch narrow gauge Manning Wardle 2-6-2T "Yeo"

A 7 1/4 inch narrow gauge Lynton & Barnstaple 2-6-2T "Yeo", modelled on one of the original locomotives built for that railway by Manning Wardle.

A one-owner engine, it was commission built by a professional model engineer for a private collector, along with the magnificent 7 1/4 inch gauge Standard Class 2 and 4 inch scale Burrell DCC road locomotive that we've sold recently.

Engines by the same builder - a man whose work we've greatly admired for many years - and retained in his own collection include a magnificent 7 1/4 inch gauge GWR King, 3 inch scale Fowler DCC road locomotive and a 7 1/4 inch narrow gauge Hunslet "Lilla" in the same gauge.

The cylinder and wheel castings were originally from Reeves, used in the well-known Milner design (we had another "Yeo", built by Milner Engineering themselves, back in 2017).

However, after studying the Milner drawings and in consultation with the customer, it was decided to make a model of the locomotive in its original, 1897 form and carrying the livery of that time, whereupon construction started based on a doubled-up version of the highly-detailed 3 1/2 inch gauge design by Les Warnett, serialised in "Engineering in Miniature" magazine.

The builder has taken a great deal of trouble to produce an authentic model, to the extent of replicating the correct scale thickness frames and stretchers, resulting in a locomotive tipping the scales at around a ton and a quarter.

The commercially built boiler was supplied new by Franklin & Bell in 2000, welded-steel construction with expanded tubes. We've put a new set of tubes in, it's had a cladding off inspection, ultrasonic thickness survey and hydraulic test, followed by steam test with new certification issued.

Built over a two year period, from 2002 to 2004, the engine has had light use from new and none at all in the last fourteen years - it remains in excellent condition throughout. Free-steaming, it runs beautifully, as might be expected.