From Owd to La'al Ratty
From Owd to La'al Ratty "Bonnie Dundee" in tank form on the turntable at Dalegarth. © Copyright Malcolm Neal and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. In two previous post I detailed the history of the “Owd Ratty”. The orignal 3 foot gauge Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway which operated between 1875 & 1913. You can find these posts Part 1 & Part 2 In 1915 model makers Wenman Joseph Bassett-Lowke & Robert Proctor-Mitchell were looking for somewhere to test their own locomotives. They came across the disused “Owd Ratty” and quickly set about regauging the line. The section between Ravenglass and Muncaster was the first to reopen in late August of 1915. Most of the line was converted in sections from 1917. But it wasn’t till the mid-1920s that the present-day terminus at Dalegarth was reached. For a time the line did run into the old station at Boot. But the gradients on that section of the line were too much for the scale engines. The curr