WELSHPOOL’S ‘AFRICAN TRAIN’ WINS HERITAGE LOTTERY GRANT

Cash will fund nationwide tour of former Sierra Leone Government Railways Hunslet.

AHeritage Lottery Fund grant of £22,800 has been awarded to support the development of the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway’s ‘African train’ and its links with the Sierra Leone National Railway Museum. The WLLR’s 1954‑built ex‑Sierra Leone Government Railways Hunslet 2‑6‑2T No. 85 was repatriated in 1975 and has been out of service since 2010, in need of a new boiler. Since 2012, it has been displayed at the National Railway Museum’s Shildon outpost, Locomotion. The grant enables No. 85 to go on tour this summer, during which it will visit the Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills, on April 22; Hull (European City of Culture and twinned with Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital), April 23‑May 7; London Museum of Water & Steam, Kew Bridge, May 27‑June 5; Tyseley Locomotive Works, June 23‑25; and the Shrewsbury Steam Rally, August 27/28. It will then return to Llanfair Caereinion for the railway’s annual steam gala on September 1‑3. Other visits are being planned. The railway has two restored ex‑Sierra Leone carriages, which it uses for its successful ‘afternoon tea’ trains. With an unofficial fund established to pay for the construction of the new boiler, and already having raised £25,000, it has been announced that No. 85 will be the first locomotive to be overhauled in its planned new workshop. the Welshpool & llanfair light railway’s ‘African train’ at llanfair caereinion on september 5 2009. the railway will send hunslet 2‑6‑2t no. 85 on tour will the aid of a £22,800 heritage lottery fund grant.

The current recipient of workshop attention, Franco‑Belge 0‑8‑0T Sir Drefaldwyn, is expected to return to service in 2018.