The Lee Moor Tramway Preservation Society:
Lee Moor Tramway Locomotive No. 2
ABOVE & BELOW: Lee Moor Tramway Locomotive No.2 outside Torycombe Shed, Lee Moor, in June 1970.
Photographs: Copyright Bernard Mills / CLASSIC TRACTION IMAGES - www.classictractionimages.weebly.com
Photographs: Copyright Bernard Mills / CLASSIC TRACTION IMAGES - www.classictractionimages.weebly.com
A brief history of Lee Moor No. 2
The Lee Moor Tramway was built specifically to transport china clay from the Lee Moor, on the south western edge of Dartmoor, to Plymouth. The locomotive Lee Moor No. 2 was delivered to the tramway in 1899, and is an 0-4-0 saddle tank. She is equipped with driving wheels of 2 feet 6 inch diameter and outside cylinders of 10 inches x 20 inches with a working pressure of 120 pounds per square inch, which produce 6,800 pounds of tractive effort. She is a standard M4 type Peckett, with the exception that she was built to the narrower 4 foot 6 inch gauge of the Lee Moor Tramway, as opposed to the more normal standard gauge.
Lee Moor No. 2 was used to shunt wagons at Torycombe (Lee Moor) and hauled trains of china clay from there to the top of the Cann Wood Incline. She was overhauled in 1935 and continued in use until December 1945, when the tramway closed, after which the china clay was piped from Lee Moor to Marsh Mills.
LEFT: Lee Moor No. 2 is seen inside the Lee Moor Tramway Museum building at Buckfastleigh, at the South Devon Railway, on the 27th August 2007. Photograph: COPYRIGHT CLASSIC TRACTION.
Lee Moor No. 2 was used to shunt wagons at Torycombe (Lee Moor) and hauled trains of china clay from there to the top of the Cann Wood Incline. She was overhauled in 1935 and continued in use until December 1945, when the tramway closed, after which the china clay was piped from Lee Moor to Marsh Mills.
LEFT: Lee Moor No. 2 is seen inside the Lee Moor Tramway Museum building at Buckfastleigh, at the South Devon Railway, on the 27th August 2007. Photograph: COPYRIGHT CLASSIC TRACTION.
Lee Moor No. 2 was to remain in her shed at Torycombe even after the tramway was dismantled in 1962. It was then that some members of the Plymouth Railway Circle formed the Lee Moor Tramway Preservation Society with the objective of preserving her. She was renovated from 1964 to 1970, and then moved to the National Trust property of Saltram House, on the outskirts of Plymouth. Lee Moor No. 2 was to remain at Saltram until 2002, when she was subsequently moved to her present home at Buckfastleigh on the South Devon Railway.
Also preserved at Buckfastleigh by the Lee Moor Tramway Preservation Society is the sole surviving wagon of the tramway. At its height, there were around 140 wagons that were used on the tramway, and nearly all were of this type (as demonstrated in Bernard Mills photograph above) and had a 4 foot 3 inch wheelbase, had unsprung buffers, and were equipped with side chains, so as they could be hauled by horses or by locomotives. All of the wagons on the tramway were scrapped in 1961, but this one escaped this fate, as it was involved in an accident and became derailed at Cann Wood Incline during the 1930s. An extensive rebuild was undertaken by the Society at Torycombe from 1968 to 1970, which included the replacement of all of the original timber. A No. 44 numberplate was donated, and today this adorns the wagon, but unfortunately, the true identity of the wagon may never truely be known.
ABOVE: Lee Moor No. 2 is given a good clean during one of the Society's open days. 9th April 2007.
Photograph: COPYRIGHT CLASSIC TRACTION - www.classictractioncollection.weebly.com
Also preserved at Buckfastleigh by the Lee Moor Tramway Preservation Society is the sole surviving wagon of the tramway. At its height, there were around 140 wagons that were used on the tramway, and nearly all were of this type (as demonstrated in Bernard Mills photograph above) and had a 4 foot 3 inch wheelbase, had unsprung buffers, and were equipped with side chains, so as they could be hauled by horses or by locomotives. All of the wagons on the tramway were scrapped in 1961, but this one escaped this fate, as it was involved in an accident and became derailed at Cann Wood Incline during the 1930s. An extensive rebuild was undertaken by the Society at Torycombe from 1968 to 1970, which included the replacement of all of the original timber. A No. 44 numberplate was donated, and today this adorns the wagon, but unfortunately, the true identity of the wagon may never truely be known.
ABOVE: Lee Moor No. 2 is given a good clean during one of the Society's open days. 9th April 2007.
Photograph: COPYRIGHT CLASSIC TRACTION - www.classictractioncollection.weebly.com
Lee Moor No. 2
LEFT: Lee Moor No. 2 is seen during a recent open day at the Lee Moor Tramway Museum, at the South Devon Railway at Buckfastleigh, on Sunday 11th July 2010.
Photograph: Copyright Steve Andrews / CLASSIC TRACTION.
www.classictractioncollection.weebly.com
Photograph: Copyright Steve Andrews / CLASSIC TRACTION.
www.classictractioncollection.weebly.com
Nameplate / numberplate on Lee Moor No. 2
LEFT: Lee Moor No. 2's name / numberplate is seen on the locomotive at the Lee Moor Tramway Museum, at the South Devon Railway, Buckfastleigh, during a recent open day on Sunday 11th July 2010.
Photograph: Copyright Steve Andrews / CLASSIC TRACTION.
www.classictractioncollection.weebly.com
Photograph: Copyright Steve Andrews / CLASSIC TRACTION.
www.classictractioncollection.weebly.com
The Lee Moor Tramway gallery
ABOVE: The old Lee Moor Tramway bridge at Plymbridge as photographed by Ron Andrews on the 7th July 1977.
Photograph: Copyright Ron Andrews / CLASSIC TRACTION IMAGES - www.classictractionimages.weebly.com
Photograph: Copyright Ron Andrews / CLASSIC TRACTION IMAGES - www.classictractionimages.weebly.com