Which heritage railway has been running diesels the longest?

[AY1975]

Following on from my thread on diesel-only heritage railways at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/diesel-only-heritage-railways.146620/, I wondered which heritage railway has had diesel locos (and/or DMUs) and been regularly running diesel-operated services the longest?

Obviously, in the early days of railway preservation the main raison d'être of heritage railways was to preserve steam, and most visitors expected to travel behind a steam loco. Although that is still true of a lot of visitors to preserved railways today, nostalgia moves on and there are now also people like myself who grew up in the days of classic diesel traction and relish the opportunity to relive those days.

I would guess that the North Yorkshire Moors was one of the first - it had some diesels almost right from the start. When I first went there as a child in about 1983 I travelled behind steam but the other train running that day was diesel-hauled (probably Class 25 D76268 "Sybilla"). The NYMR was also a pioneer in DMU preservation, having had two Class 100 DMUs in the 1970s and early '80s.

In terms of diesel galas, I believe that the East Lancs has been holding them since the late '80s and was possibly the first railway to have them.

 

[Cowley]

Quite an interesting subject.
Looking back to the late 1970s/early 1980s the NYMR had D1048 and a Warship based there (D821 maybe?). They also had a class 24 - 24032 which I seem to remember was painted in a strange two tone green, I think this might have been the locomotive you travelled behind?
The diesels were used a lot during hot high fire risk summers.

The Western Locomotive Assassination preserved D1013 and D1062 and these were used on the Torbay and Dartmouth before going to the Severn Valley where they’ve been ever since. The SVR was also one of the first lines to run proper diesel galas.

The Great Central gave a home to 40106 when that was preserved in the early 1980s?

The Mid Hants bought 25067 and 27007 sometime around 1985, they arrived together and the 25 was used extensively during a particularly hot summer (probably 1986). 27007 got caught up in a shed fire at Ropley unfortunately.

The West Somerset have had their preserved Hymeks (D7017 and D7018) for a long time (1970s?) but also made extensive use of various DMUs for off season trains. I remember catching the 103 in the early 1980s when we were on holiday up there. That unit is now in Cornwall at the Helston Steam Railway.

Of course lots of lines have had early withdrawal class 03s, 04s and 08s as well as various ex industrial shunters

 

[martinsh]

the Keighley & Worth Valley have had their railbuses since 1967, and have been running them in service more or less ever since

 

[paul1609]

The Kent & East Sussex Railway has operated Great Western Railcar No.20 since 1966 and it formed the first train to carry fare paying passengers when the line re-opened in 1974. Its restoration is now well underway and it should hopefully be back in service in the not too distant future.
http://www.preservation.kesr.org.uk/diesel-locomotives/no-20
The BTH Diesel thought to be the oldest operating diesel in the UK also arrived in 1966
http://www.preservation.kesr.org.uk/diesel-locomotives/no-40

 

[Spartacus]

The Middleton might be in with a shout, using diesel from the start in 1960, which would be ironic given it's status as the first ever railway to use commercially successful steam locos.

 

[krus_aragon]

According to Festipedia, the Ffestiniog used a Simplex with a petrol engine for their first passenger service on 23rd July 1955. (The petrol engine was replaced with a diesel in 1960.)

They also had a diesel by the name of Moelwyn, but Festipedia doesn't give any details on it's use for passenger trains before the '60s. I'll see if I can dig up something in a book.

Edit: J.I.C. Boyd's Festiniog Railway Vol II states that the originally petrol-powered Baldwin tractor (Moelwyn) was fitted with a Gardner 3LW diesel engine, and that Moelwyn was first used on August Bank Holiday 1956. M.J. Stretton confirms (in Festiniog Railway in Camera) that Moelwyn was diesel-powered in 1956.

 

[Cowley]

What about Howey’s Rolls Royce conversation for an early form of non steam traction...


Not my photo.

Excellent looking machine.

 

[Edders23]

the Keighley & Worth Valley have had their railbuses since 1967, and have been running them in service more or less ever since

as well as the EE 500bhp prototype

 

[DelW]

The West Somerset have had their preserved Hymeks (D7017 and D7018) for a long time (1970s?) but also made extensive use of various DMUs for off season trains. I remember catching the 103 in the early 1980s when we were on holiday up there. That unit is now in Cornwall at the Helston Steam Railway.

The Hymeks are owned and run by the Diesel and Electric Group. I'm pretty sure D7017 was at the West Somerset by autumn 1978, but unfortunately any evidence I have (in the form of photos from a west country holiday that year) is buried deep in a storage box. I'm not sure whether she was operational or not as I don't remember it being a running day, I think she was just stabled in the station yard. She was in blue with a large D+EG logo.
D7018 was initially based at Didcot, and only moved to the WSR a few years later.

 

[Cowley]

The Hymeks are owned and run by the Diesel and Electric Group. I'm pretty sure D7017 was at the West Somerset by autumn 1978, but unfortunately any evidence I have (in the form of photos from a west country holiday that year) is buried deep in a storage box. I'm not sure whether she was operational or not as I don't remember it being a running day, I think she was just stabled in the station yard. She was in blue with a large D+EG logo.
D7018 was initially based at Didcot, and only moved to the WSR a few years later.

Actually that’s a silly oversight of mine saying that they were preserved by the West Somerset.
Also I didn’t realise that D7018 had arrived later.
This is an interesting photo from the Preserved Diesels website, of D7017 awaiting transfer to the line from Taunton station.


1976!

 

[DelW]

This is an interesting photo from the Preserved Diesels website, of D7017 awaiting transfer to the line from Taunton station.
1976!

Interesting indeed, she'd arrived in the very early days of the WSR then.

On my previous west country holiday in summer 1975 we'd stayed at a holiday cottage near Dunster Beach, and I'd looked at the overgrown track at the level crossing wondering whether the nascent WSR would indeed be able to reopen it. It was nice to go back in 1978 and see it coming back to life, if not yet anything like the busy operation it is now. Happy days!

Re D7018, I think she was originally bought as a potential source of spares for D7017, but a group of D+EG members for whom Minehead was a bit too far west looked after her at Didcot (possibly there was membership overlap with GWS?). In the event it was decided that she should be kept intact and would be restored.

There's some further information here: http://www.depg.org/depghistory.html
which says under the heading "1985" that "Over in Didcot on the 24th August Hymek D7018 was started up for the first time following a major engine overhaul", so the move to the WSR must have been after that.

 

[33017]

Interesting indeed, she'd arrived in the very early days of the WSR then.

On my previous west country holiday in summer 1975 we'd stayed at a holiday cottage near Dunster Beach, and I'd looked at the overgrown track at the level crossing wondering whether the nascent WSR would indeed be able to reopen it. It was nice to go back in 1978 and see it coming back to life, if not yet anything like the busy operation it is now. Happy days!

Re D7018, I think she was originally bought as a potential source of spares for D7017, but a group of D+EG members for whom Minehead was a bit too far west looked after her at Didcot (possibly there was membership overlap with GWS?). In the event it was decided that she should be kept intact and would be restored.

There's some further information here: http://www.depg.org/depghistory.html
which says under the heading "1985" that "Over in Didcot on the 24th August Hymek D7018 was started up for the first time following a major engine overhaul", so the move to the WSR must have been after that.

D7018 moved to the WSR in autumn 1991.

 

[steamybrian]

The Talyllyn Railway ran diesels soon after they opened in 1950 and the Ffestiniog Railway ran diesels in their early days in the mid 1950s.

 

[Tim M]

Another Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways first. 1928 built Kerr Stuart 4415 was the second diesel locomotive built in the U.K., initially trialed on the FR and WHR it is now being restored at Boston Lodge. Mind the WW1 Simplex and Baldwin tractor ‘Moelwyn’ are older but were petrol engined.
http://www.kerrstuart4415.org.uk/index.html

 

[Spartacus]

That was before it was a heritage railway though.

 

[Tim M]

That was before it was a heritage railway though.

Depends on your definition of ‘heritage’. FR Co. heritage started with its Act of Parliament of 1832, the Kerr Stuart is part of that long and continuing heritage.

 

[Edders23]

were these not locos intended for use when the line was a working commercial line

Surely the criteria should be from the Point at which the railway became a preserved heritage line otherwise the argument would be when was the first diesel surely

 

[Tim M]

were these not locos intended for use when the line was a working commercial line

Surely the criteria should be from the Point at which the railway became a preserved heritage line otherwise the argument would be when was the first diesel surely

The Ff&WHR remains a commercial organisation under the same Company as set up in 1832. What has been preserved is the Festiniog Railway Company with ownership transferred to a Trust, at the same time the line transitioned to a purely tourist attraction. For the Ff&WHR heritage isn’t defined at a specific period or date, or for that matter what you can see from trains or stations. This compares with most/all post 1960 heritage railways that set out to represent a specific era or eras with modernisation period diesels a key part of the scene.

 

[Spartacus]

I'd go for Pre-and Post Pegler, separated by the period after WW2 when the line was disused. Ironically the oldest, the Middleton, wasn't bought for tourists, but for freight.

 

[Belperpete]

I'd go for Pre-and Post Pegler, separated by the period after WW2 when the line was disused. Ironically the oldest, the Middleton, wasn't bought for tourists, but for freight.

Nitpicking here (and decidedly off-topic), but I thought that the FR has been in continuous use. When the FR ceased running their own services, part of the line was rented to the quarries to run their own trains from the quarries to the interchange yards.

 

[341o2]

According to Festipedia, the Ffestiniog used a Simplex with a petrol engine for their first passenger service on 23rd July 1955. (The petrol engine was replaced with a diesel in 1960.)

They also had a diesel by the name of Moelwyn, but Festipedia doesn't give any details on it's use for passenger trains before the '60s. I'll see if I can dig up something in a book.

Edit: J.I.C. Boyd's Festiniog Railway Vol II states that the originally petrol-powered Baldwin tractor (Moelwyn) was fitted with a Gardner 3LW diesel engine, and that Moelwyn was first used on August Bank Holiday 1956. M.J. Stretton confirms (in Festiniog Railway in Camera) that Moelwyn was diesel-powered in 1956.

If we take the OP's question literally then the Ffestiniog has to be the earliest, because he asked regarding "diesels". The Tallyllyn had two units prior to this both powered by petrol/TVO, the second no5 Midlander, diesel powered arrived in 1957

 

[eldomtom2]

The Talyllyn Railway ran diesels soon after they opened in 1950 and the Ffestiniog Railway ran diesels in their early days in the mid 1950s.

Another Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways first. 1928 built Kerr Stuart 4415 was the second diesel locomotive built in the U.K., initially trialed on the FR and WHR it is now being restored at Boston Lodge. Mind the WW1 Simplex and Baldwin tractor ‘Moelwyn’ are older but were petrol engined.
http://www.kerrstuart4415.org.uk/index.html

The question was "regularly run diesel-operated services" though, not which railway was the first to own a diesel/petrol engine. Neither railway (except the Talyllyn on winter services briefly?) ran diesel-hauled services as a regular thing.

 

[Tim M]

The question was "regularly run diesel-operated services" though, not which railway was the first to own a diesel/petrol engine. Neither railway (except the Talyllyn on winter services briefly?) ran diesel-hauled services as a regular thing.

During the High Summer services at least as early as 1971, diesel Upnor Castle was the normal motive power on the off peak 09:45 and 17:45 services to Dduallt. At the same time Moelwyn was used on shuttle services during the day between Tan-y-Bwlch and Dduallt with maybe eight services Monday’s to Thursdays. Both these services ran at least until 1974, and in 1975 a shuttle service with diesel Moelwyn Hebog plus one push-pull carriage ran from Dduallt about a mile up the completed part of the Deviation.

 

[37201xoIM]

The Ravenglass & Eskdale has used diesel (and other internal combustion) locos regularly throughout, I think, its life as a heritage railway (which I supposed you would date to the auction sale of the line in the 1960s?).