10 MR 9104/1941

This loco is similar to a standard 20/28HP diesel motor rail. However, this loco is now rare because it was built with, and still retains, a petrol engine. Many other Motor Rails (eg MR2197, fleet no. 81) were built with petrol engines, but were converted to use diesel engines; this was because the diesel engine is generally more suited to rail traction, and is also more economical and reliable. Motor Rail produced kits to allow operators to carry out such conversions at there works.

This loco was the last ever loco to be fitted with a petrol engine and was ordered by the forestry commission in 1941, being ex works on 12/2/1941. It is not known why it was ordered with a petrol engine – it was part of a special batch of locos (9101 to 9104) especially specified to be so built. Perhaps it was so that a common fuel could be used, maybe used in chainsaws and the like, could also be used in the locos. The loco was delivered to a depot at Taunton. On 29/9/1946 it was sold to Exeter city council and put to work at their countess wear sewage works. The works stopped using railways in 1962; in 1968, the loco had its first spell in preservation, being sold to a Mr Shears at the West Of England Transport Collection, Winkleigh aerodrome. On 9/5/1974, the loco returned to industry via ME Engineering, a dealer based in Neasden. They passed the loco onto Alan Keef in December 1974. Alan Keef Ltd hired the loco to Beecroft Peat Ltd, White Moss Peat Works, Alsager from June 1975. This operation lasted for less than a year before closure, but the loco lingered at the works until joining the mrt collection in august 1985. It has since been mechanically and cosmetically restored.