NER E Class №262

North Etorean Railway №262 is a preserved member of the NER's E Class of 0-6-0 goods engines. She emerged from Kerr, Stuart's California Works in Stoke-On-Trent as Works № 703 / 1901. Upon arrival on the NER, she was initially allocated to Caldecote Sheds in ()shire along with five sister engines (№s 194, 201, 222, 264 & 267).
  History:
№262 was mostly used on the Kinburn & Penhurst Line due to her shorter four - wheeled tender. On the line, she ran stone trains down from Penhurst Quarry though being one of several members of the class with vacuum brakes fitted №262 occasionally stood in for F Class №89 when she was out of service. From 1913, she was reallocated to Carrickstone in Knightsbury to run local milk trains which is where she remained through to nationalisation, even when juggleing ambulance trains being one of only fourty - nine E Class locos requisitioned by the Railway Operating Division. Upon formation of the Etorean National Railways in 1919, №262 was renumbered to 40327 but would only carry this number until 1924 as she was listed as surplus to requirement after being replaced by the Woolwich Class 2-6-0s.
  In 1925, she was purchased by Tobias Mainwaring, the then manager of the Averton, Dimsbury & Millfield Light Railway, for the low sum of ℳ︁600 and was renumbered as AD&MLR №8 "Ada". She was used intermittently on whatever trains were available for her. In 1937, №8 was laid up with a damaged firebox and was set aside for use as a parts donor, this plan was cut short due to the outbreak of the Second World War. She was retrofitted with a boiler from a withdrawn GRSoE 0-6-2T and was pressed into service on goods trains, sometimes working on ENR metals. Post war, she was given a full overhaul courtesy of the ROD, themselves still having six operational and eight non operational E Class locos on their books. №8, then having been renumbered as №5, emerged from MOD Chamberwood as if she were a new engine. She was put back to work on the AD&MLR until 1956 when the line was sold to the ENR for ℳ︁780 due to financial difficulty.
  She was renumbered for the last time as ENR №D5 (though still retaining her AD&MLR name), being allocated to Kingstown in Knightsbury as a station pilot which is where she lived out the last eleven years of her working live.
  Preservation:
In 1970, a group of enthusiasts found her in a scrapyard in Shanross; №D5, LP&TR №7 & ENR №42636 (ex - LB&SCR A1 №51) were purchased for restoration and were moved to their current home of the Lea Valley Railway.