A historic locomotive used on the battlefields during World War I has been acquired by the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway at Skegness.

The locomotive, built by Motor Rail Ltd of Bedford in 1918 to a Simplex design, had previously been on loan to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford in Cambridgeshire. At Duxford, it was used as part of a Land Warfare display to demonstrate how narrow-gauge railways played a vital role in moving supplies and troops to the trenches during World War I.

That display along with the demonstration railway line are now closed, which prompted the locomotive’s owner to offer it to the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway’s Historic Vehicles Trust as its first petrol-powered locomotive, where it would be a valuable addition to the large number of World War One railway vehicles in the Trust’s care, including nine similar diesel-powered examples dating from 1920 through to versions used in World War II.

The locomotive has been described by the Imperial War Museum as a “British WWI narrow gauge (600mm) locomotive with a 20 hp Dorman 2JO petrol engine”, and is thought to be numbered Motor Rail No. 3859.

At one time, it was displayed at the Museum of Army Transport at Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire, which has now closed, where it was exhibited alongside other vehicles owned by the Historic Vehicles Trust. When that museum closed, the vehicles were stored at Burgh-le-Marsh, then moved to the Skegness Water Leisure Park when the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway relocated there after its original site at Humberston, near Cleethorpes, closed.

Another, even rarer, Motor Rail locomotive is now being restored at The Apedale Valley Light Railway near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire. Other Motor Rail locomotives are based at the Leighton Buzzard Railway in Bedfordshire.

“This is a most significant addition to our collection, which helps us show how narrow gauge railways made possible the Allied victory in World War One and later, helped develop agriculture and industry in Lincolnshire when some were sold to the Nocton Estates Railway, moving potatoes, sugar beet and fertiliser across the Fens, at a time when roads and lorries were too primitive to do so. “We will take our time to assess its condition and add some missing components before attempting to start the loco, but we hope to have it on display at some of the events we are planning for our 2026 season, including inclusion in a cavalcade at the conclusion of our Narrow Gauge at Work event”.

Richard Shepherd, Chairman of the LCLR’s Historic Vehicles Trust