The Traffic Manager of the Company was W H H M Gipps; he had been appointed some time before opening, and he was the only senior official in the Company with practical railway experience, as he was also Traffic Manager of the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton Railway (DNS). Gipps promoted excursions from the Lambourn line to Southampton over the DNS. He had long urged the Company to acquire its own locomotives and work the line itself, and Archer-Houblon once again provided the cash on a personal basis, and two 0-6-0T locomotives were purchased from Chapman and Furneaux of Gateshead, for £1,330 each. The first, "Aelfred", arrived on 15 October 1898 and started work on 18 October, and the second, "Ealhswith" a day or so later.