5297 - 'Fido” 20/35HP

5297 at the Great Bush Railway in the 1970s. (Image courtesy of John de Havilland)
 

MR.5297 was ordered on 7th April 1931 by Surrey County Council for the River Wey Navigation Joint Improvements Scheme. Initially working on river improvements within the Brooklands race track. In 1934 the council disposed of the loco and it was sold to Thomas Patterson & Son, for use at the Weydon Lane Sand Pits in Farnham. MR.5297 worked at Weydon Lane for until the early 1950s when the sand pits were closed. MR.5297 was then sold to Test River Ballast Pits Ltd for use at their Nursing Mill Gravel Pits near Southampton. In 1955 MR. 5297 was sold to Coats Bros, who used it at the Giles Lane Sand and Gravel Pit near Plaitford, Hampshire. MR.5297 was laid up out of use in 1956 after the pit it was working in flooded. 

MR. 5297 entered preservation in 1973 when it was sold to the Island Narrow Gauge Group on the Isle of Wight at Albany. When the scheme fell through the locomotive was acquired by the Fido group. MR.5297 was named after the Fido group as it was thought it would be the first locomotive the group would return to working condition. In 1976 Fido moved to the Great Bush Railway in Hadlow Down, Sussex. In 1977 it was sold to Ian Jolly and moved to Mold, North Wales. In 1980 Fido was sold again, this time to Peter Smith of Rustington, Sussex. In 1983 the locomotive was sold to a private owner based at the Old Kiln Light Railway, where it has remained ever since. 

In 2026 ownership of the locomotive changed, but will still remain at the Old Kiln Light Railway. A start has been made on a cosmetic restoration, with a long term aim of return to operational service.