Ruston and Hornsby LAT

Ruston & Hornsby built many of these narrow gauge shunters mostly for industrial users though the most notable example, ZM32 (RH works number 416214 [1]), was bought by British Railways and worked at Horwich Works from 1957 to 1964 on the 457mm gauge line there [2].

Information
Built:	1952-1958
Builder:	Ruston & Hornsby
Motor:	Ruston 2VSHL diesel
Power:	20 hp (15 kW)
Wheel arrangement:	4wDM

The LAT class were fairly simple but sturdy locomotives, diesel mechanical with a chain drive to the wheels. They could be adjusted to a number of different gauges.

A number have been preserved including ZM32 which is now at the Steeple Grange Light Railway in Wirksworth. The locomotive photographed is RH 408430 which worked for Wheatly & Company brick and tile manufacturers in Staffordshire until the late 1970s [3], it is now preserved at the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway and based at Stonehenge Works.

No.27 (RH 408430) preserved at the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway

No. 27 is gauged to 610mm

[1] Paul Smith & Shirley Smith, British Rail Departmental Locomotives 1948-1968 (Ian Allan, 2014) p. 28
[2] Brian Haresnape, Diesel Shunters (Ian Allan, 1984) p. 76
[3] George Edgar, Industrial Locomotives & Railways of the Midlands (Amberley Publishing, 2017) p. 8