No.2 Derby
Fleet No. & Name:
Weight (As Built):
Year Manufactured:
Wheel Arrangement:
Manufacturers:
Works Number:
Last Operated In Traffic:
Service Mileage:
Origin Of The Name:
Cylinder Dimensions:
Driving Wheels Diameter:
No.2 Derby
19 Tons, 10cwt
1873
2-4-0T
Beyer, Peacock & Co., Ltd.
B.P.1254
October 1947
1,234,623 (@1964)
The Earls Of Derby
11” x 18”
3’ 9”
No.2 Derby on the new road at Ramsey Station facing chimney first out of the northern terminus, a feature that was common in the early days. The classic lines of the Beyer Peacock locomotives varied little over the years and this is a fine example of a small boilered locomotive with the later arrangement of one Ross “Pop” valve mounted atop the bell-mouth dome with a second mounted between the dome and chimney, a characteristic retained by No.1 Sutherland today, on display in the railway museum adjacent to Port Erin Station.
(Photo: I.o.M.S.R.S.A.)
No.2 Derby was part of the original batch of three locomotives delivered for the opening of the Peel Line on 1st July 1873 and was named after the Earls of Derby, one-time owners of the island before its sale to the British Monarch. The locomotive was loaned to the Isle of Man Tramways & Electric Power Company (predecessors of the Manx Electric Railway Co., Ltd.) for construction of their line north of Laxey in 1898, thereby being the inspiration for the Steam Under The Wires events in 1993 as part of the electric line's centenary celebrations. It has the dubious honour of being the only locomotive on the railway to have been lost to the pages of history, save for the pony trucks which remain today - these spent several years at the end of the Birkenhead Siding at Port Erin Station with No. 4 Try These chalked on them and have since been overhauled for use as spare set. The locomotive was withdrawn in 1951 and dismantled at the time for use as spare parts for the other locomotives. The main frames survived in store for many years were scrapped in 1980 leaving only the pony truck today; the nameplates survive and remain in the safekeeping of the railway.
