Brussels Gasworks 0-4-0VB No. 'Toby'
Wansford, Cambridgeshire, UK 		Location: Nene Valley Railway
Status: Reconstruction to resemble a lost type
Posted: Aug 23, 2023 @ 09:08:25 by Steve Frost, European Editor
Surely it is impossible to describe a locomotive dating from 1890 as being "Under Construction". A complete contradiction of the facts. I will accept the rather wordy "Reconstruction to resemble a lost type" which is nearer the truth, I imagine.
Posted: Aug 18, 2023 @ 11:08:07 by Steve Frost, European Editor
It was never built for the Great Eastern. No locomotives were imported from Cockerill in Belgium by the Great Eastern and the original GER tram engines were not vertical boilered. Perhaps it may be possible replicate the appearance of a GER locomotive, but that does NOT make it one. It would falsify the record were we to record it as such.
Posted: Apr 15, 2020 @ 09:04:39 by Russell Newman
Here is a bit of information history on No. 1626 "Toby". The locomotive was one of many tram locomotives built by Cockerill of Belgium between 1883 to 1949 and is one of their Type IV Vertical Boiler shunters. No. 1626 spent most of its working life at Brussel Gasworks till its withdrawal from service in the early 1960’s. No. 1626 was bought privately for preservation in the UK in 1987 by the late Dr George Cree who started rebuild the locomotive as a replica of one the Great Eastern Railway Class G15 (LNER Y6) Tram Engines that worked on the legendry Wisbech and Upwell Tramway. Now under the ownership of a private individua since 2011 work is continuing but slowly at Wansford.
Posted: Apr 5, 2019 @ 09:04:03 by
Number will probably be 7.
Posted: Nov 30, 2016 @ 14:11:39 by Russell Newman
This vertical boilered tram engine from Belgium was being rebuilt to look like one of the GER Class G15 (LNER Y6) 0-4-0 Steam Trams that worked on the Wisbech & Upwell Tramway. Which was the idea for the Thomas The Tank Engine Charcter Toby the Tram Engine. The project has been stoled for a few years now and from what I read in a railway magazine a few years back the loco is currently up for sale.