Chairman Cliff Thomas believes that it is for these reasons that the Great River Restoration Trust has decided to focus its efforts on another war veteran restoration seamless aluminium tube that has recently come to their attention.
No. 778 was restored by a small charitable trust with noble intentions, but the aluminium sheet manufacturer proved to be a time-consuming and costly endeavor. Because of the contributions made by everyone who assisted with the overhaul, as well as the money raised during the locomotive's first boiler ticket, No. 778 has been able to continue to steam on the Leighton Buzzard Railway (LBR). Following the issuance of a new 10-year ticket to the locomotive, the locomotive's 2016 itinerary included a aluminium pipestop in the United Kingdom in addition to a trip to France (Froissy-Cappy-Dompiere) and the Apedale Valley Light Railway.
The Great River Motor Transport Museum is currently restoring the Armoured Simplex LR2182, which has a 40-horsepower engine and was built by the Motor Rail and Tramcar Company of Bedford (MR461/1917). The vehicle is currently on display at the museum.
In addition to being a remarkable survivor, No. 2182's size and strength make him an excellent field companion for No. 778, who benefits from his company. The two structures were constructed around the same time during World War I to aid the allied war effort on the Western Front by performing complementary functions that were critical to their respective aluminium pipe suppliercountries' victories.
During drawn aluminium tubing World War I, steam locomotives with a 60 centimetre (2 foot) gauge, such as Baldwin No. 778, transported vital supplies from standard gauge railheads 8-10 miles behind the front line as far forward as was tactically feasible.
For the purpose of transporting wagons to supply points or artillery batteries, it was necessary to use shorter trains, which could only be pulled by locomotives that were powered by gasoline rather than diesel. It was possible to build a wide variety of different variations of this type of internal combustion locomotive, including fully open machines, Simplexes with protective plates, and similar locomotives with full armor protection. 2182 is the only surviving example of this type that is still powered by the original gasoline engine that was installed when it was built, as far as we are aware.
It is clear from the few photographs that exist of 40hp armoured locos in France that they were not assigned numbers that included an LR prefix, despite the fact that this may have been specified in later orders at the time of construction. Because we want to keep things as simple as possible, the year 2182 will be referred to in this article as "2182" to avoid confusion.