Ashleigh

Ashleigh (formally Jupiter) was completed in 1991 and is a sister engine to Horton. While it is based on the Moors Valley Horton class of locomotive, the main differences were a 4 wheel tender and lower cab height. It featured 2½″ cylinders, 8½″ driving wheels and a locomotive type boiler. The livery was mid green.

Jupiter was built to operate at the Cuckoo Hill Railway at the Avon Valley Nurseries in Hampshire – a strawberry farm where visitors picked their own fruit.

It was supplied complete with 3 Moors Valley-style coaches and an 800 yard oval of track. The line featured a main station, 2 passing loops, a tunnel, and a turntable leading to the storage sheds for the locomotive and coaches.

After many years of operation, the line closed in 2016 and was purchased in 2019 with all the items returning to Moors Valley. Jupiter was found to be in need of a major overhaul including cylinder re-bore, new wheelsets, new firebox on the boiler and full repaint. The decision was also taken to build a new 6 wheel tender chassis and raise the height of the chimney and cab height to match that of Horton. It was given a repaint into a lined Caledonian blue livery and renamed Ashleigh.

Ashleigh now runs at the Little Western Railway in Newquay.