The Douglas Ferreira is a

diesel-hydraulic A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels ...

15" gauge locomotive which was built in 2005 by

TMA Engineering TMA Engineering Ltd, is an engineering business based in Erdington, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, who supply services around power presses, but are best known for their sideline in building and overhauling miniature steam locomotives. M ...

and works on the

Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway The Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway is a minimum gauge heritage railway in Cumbria, England. The line runs from Ravenglass to Dalegarth Station near Boot in the valley of Eskdale, in the Lake District. At Ravenglass the line ends at Ravengla ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Its wheel configuration is B-B and it is named after the former General Manager of the railway from 1961 until 1994, Douglas Ferreira. It is owned and was designed by a working group from the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway Preservation Society and now works passenger trains almost every day that they are scheduled, specifically the off-peak trains during the summer months and the vast majority of service trains throughout the winter. In 2006 it worked 9230 miles on the railway and in 2007 it travelled 8958 miles between

Ravenglass Ravenglass is a coastal village in the Copeland District in Cumbria, England. It is between Barrow-in-Furness and Whitehaven. Historically in Cumberland, it is the only coastal village in the Lake District National Park. It is located at the es ...

and Dalegarth. The locomotive carries the

Indian Red Indian red is a pigment, a variety of ocher, which gets its colour from ferric oxide, produced in India. Other shades of iron oxides include Venetian red, Venetian Red, #English red, English Red, and #Kobe, Kobe, all shown below. Chestnut (co ...

livery of the

Furness Railway The Furness Railway (Furness) was a railway company operating in the Furness area of Lancashire in North West England. History Formation In the early 1840s, the owners of iron ore mines in the Furness district of Lancashire became interested i ...

, which worked on the

Cumbrian Coast Line The Cumbrian Coast line is a rail route in North West England, running from Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness via Workington and Whitehaven. The line forms part of Network Rail route NW 4033, which continues (as the Furness line) via Ulverston an ...

until 1922, with the White and Red lining of the T & J Harrison Shipping Line (Ferreira's first employer), colloquially known as "Two of Fat and One of Lean", at the top of the body on the engine house and cab sides. The Indian Red is identical to that used on ''River Mite'', the steam locomotive owned by the R&ER Preservation Society. It uses a Westinghouse air brake system which is combined to provide a singular train brake and locomotive brake operation, however the locomotive also has a separate parking brake. It is noted for also using very bright aircraft landing lights as headlights at either end. A development of the similar '' Lady Wakefield'' locomotive, built by the railway in 1980 and the '' John Southland'' and '' Captain Howey'' locomotives built by TMA Engineering for the

Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (RH&DR) is a gauge light railway in Kent, England, operating steam and internal combustion locomotives. The line runs from the Cinque Port of Hythe via Dymchurch, St. Mary's Bay, New Romney and Romne ...

, the locomotive upholds a high miles-per-casualty ratio, making it an invaluable asset to the railway. In September 2008 the locomotive made its first visit to another 15" gauge line, in this case, the

Bure Valley Railway The Bure Valley Railway is a minimum gauge visitors' attraction in Norfolk, England, Norfolk, England. It was created on the original disused full-gauge bed of a defunct passenger service to incorporate a new, adjacent pedestrian footpath. The ...

's Super Power event. The locomotive suffered a catastrophic power unit failure in April 2013 and was dispatched to TMA Engineering for a replacement to be fitted. At the time, the railway was already struggling for operational motive power, due to the major fire in the engineering workshops and unavailability of steam locomotives. 1929-vintage ''Perkins'' stepped up as the only available diesel locomotive available for passenger service, as ''Lady Wakefield'' was also receiving a new power unit in Birmingham, while ''Shelagh of Eskdale'' has been out of service for several years. As of May 2013, the locomotive is at TMA's workshops in Birmingham.

See also