History
The DVLR was originally set up in 1870 by the Great Eastern Railway (GER) as an experiment into narrow gauge light railways. The GER set up a separate company (Deben Valley Light Railway) to run the services on the railway which ran from Aldeburgh to Butley. The GER owned the track bed for this short run, it was well engineered and perfectly level. DVLR then built all the structures on the line which were very restricted with a little help from the GER and bought one locomotive. The railway was built to the gauge of 2ft 9 and 3/4 inch gauge. An odd gauge certainly. Many people believe that this gauge was built to be not too narrow to cause problems with heavy traffic yet not too wide so as to be expensive to build. It was all down to a mistake really. The railway was originally intended to be 3ft gauge and so a 3ft gauge gauging stick was sent to the General Manager of the DVLR, a Mr. Arthur Curtain. This cleverly doubled up as a walking stick, however Mr. Curtain was a shortish chap and so cut this walking stick down a few inches. When it came to the start of the track laying this stick was used to get the correct gauge between the rails and thus the rather odd gauge was born. I only know of one other railway which was built to this gauge, The Westwood & Loscoe Light Railway
The mistake was discovered by a GER official once the track had been constructed compleetly. The original carriages which had already been ordered had to be reguaged. The locomotive was ordered specially built to the unique gauge.
The railway had only 3 short, 4 wheel carriages in olive and green livery and an 0-4-0 steam locomotive built by Beyer-Garrett. (Garrett of Leiston not Garratt...) and in the loco (No. 1, River Deben) one can see similarities with other Beyer locomotives such as the Beyer Peacocks on the Welshpool and Llanfair (those block like cylinders). This locomotive had no cab originally as it was considered that it did not need one, Suffolk being the mildest place in the country. The loco was painted maroon with the letters "DVLR" proudly spelt out on the side tanks.
More to follow...