HNRC lines up preserved Type 2 for specialist hire
PREVIOUSLY preserved 25057 has arrived at Worksop, where its owner Harry Needle Railroad Company plans to return the Type 2 to main line condition.
The locomotive was withdrawn by British Rail in March 1987 and was last at the North Norfolk Railway, although it had not been operational for a couple of years.
It was bought by HNRC last year and moved by road to its new home at the end of November. It will be followed by 25313, 25904 and 27066, although not all four are destined for the main line.
HNRC Managing Director Harry Needle said that 25057 and 25313 will be restricted to three to five trips per year, hauling five-carriage trains for clients. No date has been given for the locomotives to be ready.
He said the trains would be operated by specialist tour operators, telling RAIL “we think there is a market”, although he admitted the hire won’t be cheap.
Both will be fitted with the latest Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) and On-Train Monitoring Recorders (OTMR), and will have restricted mileage as per Office of Rail and Road regulations. The work will take around 18 months to complete.
The ex-NNR ‘25’ will have a steam heat boiler, while 25313 will have through-heat capabilities. The main line ‘25s’ are both currently in BR blue but will be painted in HNRC livery.
25313 was previously based at the Llangollen Railway, but is now stored at the Wensleydale Railway. The other two Type 2s are both at Barrow Hill.
Needle told RAIL that a purposebuilt depot is being built at HNRC’s Worksop site to maintain the four Type 2s, which are seen as an investment. He said they are unlikely to be available for heritage railways and will be “treated like Vintage Ferraris”.
They will be the first ‘25s’ to operate on the main line nationally since 25322 Tamworth Castle in 1990.
The North Yorkshire Moors Railway uses 25278 Sybilla on the national network between Whitby and Battersby, but that is all it is certified to operate.
There are 20 surviving Class 25s, although not all are operational. BR dispensed with the class in 1987, but retained 25322 for driver training duties, based at Holbeck.
The other surviving locomotives are: 25035 at the Great Central Railway; 25059 at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway; 25067 and 25255 at Nemesis Rail (Burton); 25072/083 at the Caledonian Railway; 25173 at the Battlefield Railway; 25185/191, 25901 at the South Devon Railway; 25235 at the Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway; 25244 at the Kent and East Sussex Railway; 25278 at the NYMR; 25279 at the East Lancashire Railway; 25309 at Peak Rail; 25321 at the Midland Railway - Butterley; and 25322 at the Churnet Valley Railway.