Friday, May 9, 2008, 07:14pm UK Time - • Exbury Gardens
Posted by the waterside.net Webteam
Posted by the waterside.net Webteam

The new engine is named after Marie-Louise, the one-time matriarch of the Exbury Rothschilds and the mother of Leopold de Rothschild (Leo as he is usually known), at whose instigation the hugely popular Garden Railway was built.
Mariloo joins the existing engines, Rosemary and Naomi, named after Leo de Rothschild’s sisters. The new engine, painted in the same deep blue and gold livery as the others, has a greater engine capacity (see technical data below) than Rosemary and Naomi, giving it 50 per cent more pulling power.
It has also been built by Trevor Stirland of Exmoor Steam Railway. “We are all very excited about the arrival of Mariloo,” said Mr de Rothschild, who is often to be seen on the footplate of the engines, driving them around the one-and-a-quarter mile track.
“My mother was a key character at Exbury, who, in between nursing duties in London, kept the Gardens going during the terrible years of World War II while the men were away fighting.
It is fitting that we name this new engine after her,” he said.
Mariloo, which has the capacity to pull six carriages, each containing 16 people, arrives following a record year for the Garden Railway when 59,000 visitors took the train.
The locomotive will be publicly steamed for the first time on Sunday May 4th. Guests will be invited to take a trip on the railway in carriages pulled by the new engine.
“At the height of the season we have been running at capacity,” said Mr de Rothschild. Mariloo is arriving in the nick of time.”
The Rothschilds continue to manage Exbury and have built up the world-famous collections of rhododendrons, azaleas, trees and shrubs, over almost a century.





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