SLR1 4-8-2+2-8-4 No. 73
Freetown, Sierra Leone
Location: Railway Museum
Status: Display
Abbreviation Expansion English
1 SLR Sierra Leone Railway Sierra Leone Railway
Posted: Jan 20, 2016 @ 13:01:08 by Steve Frost
After World War Two, the Sierra Leone Railway sought more powerful and more modern traction. Because of its narrow gauge and light axle loading they chose to buy fourteen of these Garratt locomotives from Beyer Peacock of Manchester. This loco is the surviving member of the class.

At the closure of the railway in 1974-5 a small number of vehicles were set aside in the carpentry workshop at Cline. Here they lay forgotten in a building that housed refugees during the Civil War until rediscovered by Colonel Steve Davis of the British Army. He approached the President of Sierra Leone, no less, and secured the future of what is now the country's National Railway Museum, where the loco is displayed today.