THE Narrow Gauge Railway Museum is hoping to raise £60,000 to purchase and restore a ‘new’ steam engine.

The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Trust has announced that it has an opportunity to bring another Fletcher, Jennings engine to Tywyn, William Finlay, which used to work at the Dorking Greystone Lime Company.

Here it will be displayed in the Museum, where it can be compared to the Talyllyn Railway’s two original locomotives, also manufactured by Fletcher, Jennings, Talyllyn and Dolgoch.

The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum began with a growing collection of narrow gauge railway items in the 1950s.

It was established as a charitable trust in 1964, and later superseded by the current Narrow Gauge Railway Museum Trust in 1994.

Always based at Tywyn Wharf station on the Talyllyn Railway the bulk of the Trust’s collection was finally housed in a purpose-built museum as part of the re-development of Tywyn Wharf station in 2005.

The great limestone quarry of the Dorking Greystone Lime Company stood to the north of the Southern Railway line at Betchworth, Dorking.

William Finlay was the owner who set up the Quarry in 1865, and incorporated the first Hoffman kilns for lime-burning erected and fired in England.

It once extended to around a 1/3 of a mile wide and was 300 feet deep, with other workings in tunnels that stretched much further.

William Finlay and its sister engine Townsend Hook are identical 3ft 2¼ inch (972 mm) gauge 0-4-0 tank locomotives built for the company by Fletcher, Jennings and Company in 1880.

Both locomotives have been disused since the quarries closed in 1963.

William Finlay (works number 173L) has been privately owned for some years and has not been on display.

The locomotive has been offered to the Trust for what is considered to be a “very reasonable price and is an opportunity too good to be missed”.

Therefore the Trust has launched an appeal for £60,000 to fund the purchase, transportation, cosmetic restoration and display costs of this locomotive, which will add much to its collection.

Not only will the purchase bring another example of a Fletcher, Jennings locomotive to Tywyn, it will also illustrate another aspect of the role of narrow gauge railways, that of limestone quarrying.

Because of its unusual gauge, there is no realistic prospect of the locomotive being returned to service, and a cosmetic restoration is planned for display within the museum building.

Placing it on display will require some alteration to the museum building and the relocation of some other exhibits.

In the Museum, William Finlay will take on the role of access locomotive, where adults and accompanied children will be allowed on the footplate.

Donations to the William Finlay appeal can be made by online payment or by downloading a donation and gift aid form from the museum’s web site www.ngrm.org.uk