Lister - Lizzie

No.4  LIZZIE    

This locomotive dates from 1973 and operated on a 2'0” gauge line at the Spun Pipe Plant of the Clay Cross Co Ltd of Clay Cross, near Chesterfield. It was one of two diesel-engined locos built there using parts supplied by R & A Lister & Co Ltd of Dursley, Gloucestershire, a well-known manufacturer of lightweight narrow-gauge engines (Clay Cross also operated several genuine Listers). The loco was used to move trains of concrete pipes between the plant and the stockyards, and when the line closed down at the end of 2000 it passed into the hands of preservationists.   While at a private line in Dorset in 1993 the original Lister diesel engine failed, and the loco, now named "LIZZIE", was fitted with a Ford petrol engine. Four years later it passed into the hands to Brian Gent, who was secretary of the Narrow Gauge Railway Society and proprietor of F.M.B. Engineering, who dealt in narrow gauge railway equipment. Brian resold it to an S.G.L.R. member, re-gauging it to 18" before arranging its transport back to Derbyshire in February 1998.  The petrol engine expired one hot Saturday afternoon, and in 2004 LIZZIE was fitted with a Lombardini diesel engine instead.  In 2018 it was repainted in a khaki livery for use at a special operation commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.  In the process it lost its name.  It is in working order but rarely used.