A mini gala weekend being planned for one of the region’s best-loved heritage railway lines will see two very special locomotives making whistlestop visits next weekend

The special event being arranged by the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 November will feature tank engines ‘Fox’ and ‘Badger’ – two specially constructed locomotives from the Whistlestop Valley’s Kirklees Light Railway in West Yorkshire.

They will be pulling trains on the iconic Lake District line alongside the beautifully restored 125-year old ‘Katie’, which is based at the Ravenglass Railway Museum, as part of a wider gathering of staff from various narrow-gauge railways across Great Britain.

Both Fox and Badger have been heavily modified, drawing on ideas and technology pioneered by Argentinian engineer L D Porta.

Porta believed the potential of steam locomotives was never fully developed before modernisation of the railways, that led to the end of steam locomotives in the 1960s.

As well as Fox, Badger and Katie, it’s expected other heritage locomotives travelling over the weekend will include: River Irt, River Mite, River Esk and Whillan Beck and possibly Northern Rock, which has been under overhaul for the last two years.

Special value tickets will be available both online and on the day for all trains running across the weekend, with visitors able to ride all day between Ravenglass and Dalegarth for the price of a standard return ticket.

(Subject to availability, and not to be used in in conjunction with any other offer or discount).

As part of the mini gala, there will be extra ‘early morning’ return journeys each day at 10.10am, heading directly to Murthwaite yard for a special behind-the-scenes tour with a volunteer guide from the Ravenglass Railway Museum.

Murthwaite yard is the location of the remains of the stone crushing plant that processed stone quarried in Eskdale until the 1950s.

Participants will have an added opportunity to get a unique view of a ‘double-headed’ train passing Murthwaite - featuring two heritage steam engines rather than the usual one.

At the same time, it’s a chance for people to visit the free to enter Ravenglass Railway Museum with its impressive collection of more than 3,000 artefacts chronicling the railway’s history since the 1870s.

To book, visit: www.ravenglass-railway.co.uk/events/la-al-locomotives-at-la-al-ratty.