The Golden Valley Light railway

Motor Rail 11177 "Holwell Castle"

The 7 tons loco built in 1961, was acquired and arrived on GVLR metals on Tuesday, 8th April 2008, from the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway (L&BR), where its original 62 HP Dorman 3LB engine had suffered a loose flywheel. GVLR Engineering decided that whilst this defect was readily remediable in house, it would still be vulnerable to current & future parts obsolescence, so the decision was taken to re-engine it with a new old stock 70 HP Deutz 4 cylinder engine of their F914 type.

Simplex actually built some locos of this type with 4 cylinder Deutz F912 engines, and also some with higher horsepower Dorman 3LD engines, so it was known that the transmission can withstand the higher rating and the design for the installation already existed. (The 914 is just a stroked & bored version of the 912.)

The air brake system has also been brought into line with the GVLR standard. There has been a huge amount of work involved in this conversion, in part due to the non standard bodywork fitted earlier in its history, and we are indebted to Patrick Keef for the supply of information and some of the parts.

The original engine is believed otherwise to be in good order, and will be retained as a source of spares for sister loco 60S364. The new engine has a build date of 2012, so will have much lower emissions than the original.

After 6 years of work, "Holwell Castle" hauled it first revenue trains on the Golden Valley Light Railway on Sunday 25th May 2025

Pre GVLR History

Its industrial career spanned 14 years with Reed & Mallik (Plant) Ltd. It then moved via Alan Keef Ltd to the Llanberis Lake Railway. Six years later, it moved to the Brecon Mountain Railway, where it was named 'Rhydychen' in engineering train service and stayed there for almost twenty years.

It was purchased in the late 1990"s, by the Lynton & Barnstaple Trust. Firstly placed in store at a private site just outside Barnstaple and then moved to the Talyllyn for restoration work. Further restoration work took place at L&BR’s Bratton Fleming workshop in the early 2000’s.

At L&BR the name 'Rhydychen' was replaced by “Holwell Castle”, not far from Woody Bay. As Rhydychen is the Welsh name for Oxford, it inspired the choice of Oxford blue paint! Bodywork built new at Bratton Fleming, other than the sliding cab window, which started life on HE 7495.

The loco worked the diesel service in the early days of the L&BR, when they only ran to Bridge 67, and was the first L&BR owned loco in regular passenger service.

It first entered service with the L & B in 2005. In 2008 the loco, which was not in traffic or in full working order, was declared 'surplus to requirement'.

Additional information from Geoff Loynes & Eddie Draper