23/06/2026
ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!
It is confirmed that Emmet will be our next visiting locomotive for the Railway Gala on the 8th & 9th AUGUST 2026!
Emmets story stretches back nearly 90 years and spans two countries.
The locomotive we know as Emmet (Named after the railway cat at the Moors Valley) was built at the Moors Valley Railway by Jim Haylock in 2003, but its origins go much further back. Beneath the steam locomotive is the chassis of a German-built Orenstein & Koppel diesel locomotive dating from the 1930s.
The original diesel worked at Kiel Docks in Germany before making its way to Britain after the Second World War. It then found a new life in Dorset, working on the Norden clay railway system, hauling ball clay trains until the industrial railway closed around 1970.
Rather than being scrapped, the chassis survived and decades later became the foundation for a remarkable new project. At the Moors Valley Railway, with a boiler from Bennett’s and a pair of steam crane cylinders, it was transformed into the steam locomotive Emmet, giving the old industrial machine an entirely new identity and a second working life. It is also believed that the internal combustion components do still exist in the restoration of another locomotive!
From a German dockyard diesel, to a Dorset clay railway workhorse, to a heritage steam locomotive still in service today, Emmet’s story is a wonderful example of narrow gauge at its best.
We would like to thank the Old Kiln Light Railway, Tilford Surrey and the Moors Valley Railway for allowing Emmet to be the next visiting locomotive to our Rail Gala!
Photo credits: A. HOLT
