BWLR have offered to provide a home to a Wickham Prototype Target Trolley owned by The Rail Trolley Trust. This arrived here on 13th May 2025 and has now been partly dismantled. In due course, trust volunteers will be working to restore this item to working order if at all possible.
The Rail Trolley Trust announced that agreement had been reached for the ownership of the prototype Wickham Target Trolley to be transferred from the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway to The Rail Trolley Trust.
The details of the Trolley are:
Wickham Works No. 2522
Wickham Order No. 14349
Wickham Type R1300/B Target Trolley
Original Engine – JAP 1323 Special – No. DTZ/01 62584S
Shipped from Ware – 25th October 1938
Gauge – 2ft 0in
Running No. RTT/767182
Delivered to – Chief Engineer, Eastern Command, London SW1 (War Office) for Lydd, Kent
The Trolley was original preserved at The Museum of Army Transport at Beverley and was relocated to storage provided by a member of LBNGR, when the museum closed.
This is an important addition to the Trust’s collection, as it is an extremely important part in telling the story of the development of the Wickham Target Trolleys. The Trust were previously granted permission to reproduce personal correspondence and official documents from the Coward family archive of H. E. R. Coward who was Chief Machinist, Royal Engineers from January 1939 until the end of WW2. Details of how this trolley was used at the Lydd Ranges and other information can be found here
The Trust has all the parts required to return it to operational condition.
A Flickr Album for the Trolley can be found here
