Active Forty

The active forty were a group of people who wished to save Livingston Thompson, then named Earl of Merioneth, from major surgery or destruction to fit a new Hunslet boiler in 1971. They signed a letter to the Festiniog Railway Magazine suggesting "a completely new loco could be built on the present bogies, with the old Earl being stored as a museum piece without bogies until such time as they are no longer required by the new machine."

As a result of this action, the old Earl was spared and a new locomotive was built carrying the same name. Livingston Thompson was eventually restored for static display and is now housed at the National Railway Museum in York.

The letter was signed under the byline ACTIVE FORTY by: G J C & A Aldous, J Bishop, D Boughey, C Burn-Murdoch, C Byrne, C Chitty, J Collins, K Dakin, D & L Davis, D Dick, A Ellis, C Gibbard, Phil Girdlestone, H Goldstraw, S Hewett, M Holderness, G Holt, R Holton, P Ingham, S Jesson, A Mason, T Maynard, D Newson, P Oakley, J Peacock, E Rooney, M Single, P Smith, J Sowerby, K Wallace, J Ward, M Watson, Howard Wilson, J Worley, B Yarborough.