Yeo locomotive

Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Yeo
Yeo and train approaching Woody Bay in Southern livery
Power type Steam
Builder Manning Wardle (England)
Serial number 1361
Build date 1898
Configuration 2-6-2T
Gauge 1 ft 11.5 in
Leading wheel
diameter
2 ft 0 in (0.610 m)
Driver diameter 2 ft 9 in (0.838 m)
Trailing wheel
diameter
2 ft 0 in (0.610 m)
Wheelbase Coupled: 6 ft 6 in (1.981 m)
Total: 17 ft 9 in (5.410 m)
Length 22 ft 4 in (6.81 m) over buffer beams
Width 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
Height 8 ft 11 in (2.72 m)
Locomotive weight 27.25 long tons (27.69 t)
Fuel type Coal
Firegrate area 8.85 sq ft (0.822 m2)
Heating surface:
Total
383 sq ft (35.58 m)
Cylinders Two, outside
Cylinder size 10.5 × 16 in (267 × 406 mm)
Valve gear Joy
Career Lynton and Barnstaple Railway,
Southern Railway
Number L&B: Yeo,
SR: E759
Locale Devon, South West England
Last run 29 September 1935
Scrapped December 1935

Yeo was one of three narrow gauge 2-6-2T steam locomotives built by Manning Wardle in 1898 for the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway. Following the railway's closure in 1935 it was scrapped.

Yeo, like all the locomotives on the L&B, was named after a local river with a three-letter name, in this case the River Yeo.

This naming tradition has been continued in the 21st Century, with Lyd (a replica of Lew, the fourth locomotive built to this basic design) operational on the Ffestiniog Railway and the Welsh Highland Railway. It had been intended that Lyd would receive Yeo's original chimney (which survived on a steamroller for 62 years) but it was found to be too corroded for further use.

The naming tradition has also been applied to a Kerr Stuart Joffre class locomotive currently running on the revived L&B, which has been named Axe, and a Maffei locomotive named Sid.

A set of frames for a new Yeo were built by Winson Engineering in 2000 and are currently stored waiting for construction to continue when funds are available.

A 7¼ inch (185mm)gauge model was built by Milner Engineering in 1979 and worked in Buckfastleigh before moving to the Gorse Blossom Railway in 1984. In 2009 the loco was purchased by a member of the L&B.

A 12¼ inch (311 mm) gauge model was built by David Curwen in 1978 for the Réseau Guerlédan Chemin de Fer Touristique in Brittany, France. When the line closed, it transferred to the Fairbourne Railway in North Wales