The Crampton Locomotive Trust

About the Project

The centre of our project is the construction of a working replica of one of the original 4 Crampton locomotives built by the Whitehaven firm of Tulk and Ley, beginning in 1847. These were the original Crampton Patent locomotives, built to Crampton’s own design. They were originally built for the Belgian Chemin de Fer Liege – Namur, but the company had cash flow problems, and was declared bankrupt. The locomotives were then sold to the South Eastern Railway, and were used on trains from London to Dover via Redhill, Tonbridge and Ashford. Regularly reaching speeds of well over 70 mph, they were the first truly high speed standard gauge services in the world.