8887 - 'Pheobe' - 20/28HP

MR.8887 ‘Phoebe’ was built in 1944 for the Ministry of Defence. It is unknown where it first worked, as locomotive movements between military bases during World War 2 were not recorded, however by 1952 Phoebe had been allocated to the British Army of the Rhine in Arsbeck, Germany. It would be many years before Phoebe would return to England, but in 1980 she was moved to the Shoeburyness Proof & Experimental Establishment in Essex. Phoebe was then moved again to Ludgershall Central Vehicle Depot, Wiltshire for storage in 1981, where she remained for a year before going on display at Aldershot in 1982. She then moved back to the Shoeburyness Proof & Experimental Establishment, Essex. Before moving to Lydd Ranges, which would be her final military base she worked at. Phoebe then entered preservation when it was sold to a private owner in Basingstoke in 1987. Three years later in 1990 the locomotive arrived at the Old Kiln Light Railway, where it put in many years of hard work before finally being withdrawn from service for a long overdue overhaul.