Alan Keef Ltd is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 narrow gauge railway engineer which manufactures, overhauls and deals in narrow gauge locomotive

Locomotive

A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...

s, rolling stock and associated equipment.

The Limited Company

Limited company

A limited company is a company in which the liability of the members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. And the former of these, a limited company limited by shares, may be...

 was formed in 1975 at Cote

Cote, Oxfordshire

Cote is a hamlet about south of Witney and north of the River Thames in West Oxfordshire, England. Cote is part of the civil parish of Aston, Cote, Shifford and Chimney...

, Bampton, Oxon, continuing what Alan Keef had already been doing for some years as an individual. In 1986 the company moved to larger premises at Lea, near Ross-on-Wye

Ross-on-Wye

Ross-on-Wye is a small market town with a population of 10,089 in southeastern Herefordshire, England, located on the River Wye, and on the northern edge of the Forest of Dean.-History:...

 in Herefordshire.

The first new loco was built in 1976. To date (2008) over eighty locos have been built – steam, diesel and electric. Most have been narrow gauge except for two standard gauge

Standard gauge

The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

 steam locos for Beamish Museum

Beamish Museum

Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum is an open-air museum located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, County Durham, England. The museum's guiding principle is to preserve an example of everyday life in urban and rural North East England at the climax of industrialisation in the early...

 – the replicas of "Steam Elephant

Steam Elephant

Steam Elephant is an early steam locomotive from North East England.-Historiography:An illustration of the locomotive first came to modern attention in 1931 and it was then generally assumed to be the work of George Stephenson...

" and "Puffing Billy

Puffing Billy (locomotive)

Puffing Billy is an early railway steam locomotive, constructed in 1813-1814 by engineer William Hedley, enginewright Jonathan Forster and blacksmith Timothy Hackworth for Christopher Blackett, the owner of Wylam Colliery near Newcastle upon Tyne, in the United Kingdom. It is the world's oldest...

" – and in 2008 Alan Keef Ltd built the frames, running gear and mechanical parts for two Parry People Mover railcars for use on the Stourbridge Town branch (139001 and 139002).

In 1987 the company took over the production of Motor Rail

Motor Rail

Motor Rail was a British locomotive-building company, based in Bedford. Formed in 1911 as The Motor Rail & Tramcar Co Ltd, they built petrol and diesel engined locomotives, mainly narrow gauge. During World War I over 900 locos were supplied for use on temporary military supply railways...

 locomotives.

In addition to the replicas for Beamish the company has also helped restore a number of historically significant engines including both UK preserved Baldwin Class 10-12-D locomotives – No. 778 – which now works at Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway and more recently No 794 (referred to as No 590) from the Welsh Highland Railway.

New Steam Locomotives

Works No.	Plated Year	Number/ Name	Wheel Arrangement	Gauge	Class	To	Notes
1	1974	"Trixie"	0-4-0ST OC	2 ft	Trixie	First steamed at Cote on 05/09/1974, sold to Merion Mill Railway in January 1975. Returned to Alan Keef in 1976 and resold to Rail Rebecq in Belgium where it was renamed "Paula"	Alan Keef Ltd did not build Trixie, though they were heavily involved in the design. The actual builder was Trevor Barber, former manager of the Whipsnade and Umfolozi Railway.
-	1979	"Thomas"	4wVB VCG	2 ft		Telford Development Corporation	To Telford Horsehay Steam trust c.1987
30	1990	"Taffy"	0-4-0VBT VC	2 ft		Alan Keef	De Winton replica
38	1991	"Trijntje"	0-4-0T OC	60 cm		De Efteling B.V. Efteling Efteling is the largest theme park in the Netherlands, and as it opened in 1952, it is one of the oldest theme parks in the world. Efteling is located in the town of Kaatsheuvel, in the municipality of Loon op Zand, and has received over 100 million visitors....
69R	2003	"Mark Timothy"	2-6-4T OC	15in		Bure Valley Railway
71	2004	"Puffing Billy"	0-4-0VC	4ft81/2in		Beamish Museum
77	2007	"Lydia"	2-6-2T OC	15in		Perrygrove Railway Perrygrove Railway The Perrygrove Railway is a minimum gauge railway of gauge. It is a private heritage railway at Perrygrove Farm in the Royal Forest of Dean near Coleford, Gloucestershire, England...
85R	2010	"BUNTY"	2-6-2T OC	15in		Heatherslaw Light Railway Heatherslaw Light Railway The Heatherslaw Light Railway is a gauge passenger carrying railway in Northumberland, England, near the border with Scotland.Founded by Neville Smith, the railway opened in 1989 on the Ford and Etal estate. It operates over a route from Heatherslaw to Etal Village, a little more than 3 kilometres...
E762	2012	"Lyn Lyn locomotive Lyn was a 2-4-2 tank steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1898 for the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway. After construction in Philadelphia, the loco was broken down, crated to Barnstaple, and reassembled by L&B staff in their Pilton workshops.Lyn, like all the locomotives on... " Replica	2-4-2T	600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in)		Lynton & Barnstaple Railway	final assembly of 1898 replica