The Lynton & Barnstaple Trust has launched an appeal to raise funds for the overhaul of its Kerr-Stuart ‘Joffre’ locomotive Axe.

A special episode of the YouTube video Steam on the Moor was shown at a Members Forum in Lynton last Saturday, November 8th, when the appeal was launched.

The last time that Axe was in steam was at last year’s Remembrance Service. By then, Axe had been in service since 2009, but its boiler ticket expired soon afterwards.

Built by Kerr, Stuart & Co Ltd at Stoke-on-Trent in 1915, Axe is owned by the Lynton & Barnstaple Trust. Among the work required to restore Axe to running order is lifting the boiler to enable it to be inspected, replacing the boiler tubes, stripping down and refurbishing the running gear and improving the pipework in the cab.

However, as when any steam locomotive is overhauled, unexpected work may be required, and it is very difficult to estimate the final cost.

Axe is one of seventy 60cm gauge Joffre Class side and well tank locomotives ordered by the French government for service on the Western Front, the class being named after the French First World War Commander.

In 1924, it is known to have been owned by the Kent Construction & Engineering Company Ltd., and was later owned by Ets. Riffier at Macon in Saone et Loire. By 1932, it was known to be working for Carrières de la Vallée Heureuse et du Haut Banc at Marquise Rinxent in Pas de Calais.

Around 1956, British train enthusiasts discovered Kerr, Stuart 2451 (Axe) and four sister locos, 2405, 2442, 3010, and 3014, at Rinxent, where they had been out of service for almost ten years. These five locomotives were thought to be the only survivors of the class, and in 1974, they were repatriated to the UK.

No. 2405 went to the West Lancashire Light Railway near Southport, and by 1976, the other four had been placed in storage at the Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry Museum in North Wales, before moving in 1978 to Gloddfa Ganol at Blaenau Ffestiniog, where 2442, 3010 and 3014 were painted.

Axe, still as No. 2451, remained unpainted and in 1983 was purchased by the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Association for £2,750.

The Association named it Axe, following the policy of naming its locos after three-letter Devon rivers, and hoped it would be in steam by September 1985. That proved a false hope, and Axe was moved to the Gartell Light Railway at Templecombe in Somerset for the restoration to be completed.

On Remembrance Day, 11th November 2008, AXE finally returned to steam as part of its dedication ceremony by the Bishop of Exeter on November 11th 2008. Two months later, in January 2009, Axe returned to the railway for steam trials, culminating in hauling her first operational passenger service on 1st March 2009.

Other restoration projects recently undertaken by the railway include a Lynton and Barnstaple Railway observation saloon. In 2022, locomotive Lyd made a guest appearance on The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway.