Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Manning Wardle 2-6-2T
The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Manning Wardle locomotive is Lew (E190), a 2-6-2T built by Manning Wardle & Co. of Leeds in 1925 as the last locomotive delivered to the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, joining the fleet just ten years before the Southern Railway closed the line in 1935. Lew was the most powerful locomotive the L&BR ever operated and represented a late attempt to improve the line's motive power capacity for the tourist trade on the Exmoor narrow-gauge line.
After the L&BR's closure Lew was sold and shipped from Swansea to Pernambuco in Brazil in September 1935. Most of the shipping records were destroyed during the war and its fate is unknown. No original Lynton & Barnstaple Manning Wardle survives: Yeo, Exe and Taw were all scrapped when the line closed. The modern replica Lyd, built by the Ffestiniog Railway, is recorded separately on this site.
Identification features
1 ft 11½ in narrow-gauge 2-6-2 tank.
Notable locomotives
- No original survives. Lyd, on the Ffestiniog Railway, is a modern replica and is recorded separately.
Livery history
Preservation status
No original Lynton & Barnstaple Manning Wardle survives. Yeo, Exe and Taw were scrapped when the line closed in 1935, and Lew, the last of them, was shipped from Swansea to Pernambuco in Brazil that September; most of the shipping records were destroyed in the war and its fate is unknown.
