FIVE VENTURE FORTH FOR TANFIELD’S GALA

Steel industry pair to appear in Newcastle-built line-up.

Steam locomotives built in Newcastle will be brought together at the Tanfield Railway’s ‘Legends of Industry’ gala on June 17/18. Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns ‘56’ class 0‑6‑0ST No. 62 ‘Ugly’ will return to Tyneside for the first time since it was built in 1950. With a tractive effort greater than a ‘Black Five’, the former Stewarts & Lloyds machine is currently the most powerful working steam locomotive built in Newcastle. Delivered new to quarries in the Corby area, No. 62 was the eighth of ten ‘56’ class engines built for ironstone work. It spent its entire career at Corby before entering preservation at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in May 1969. Now based at the Spa Valley Railway, No. 62 has much in common with the second visitor, Hawthorn Leslie 0‑6‑0ST No. 21 ‘Linda’ ‑ although the duo have never been seen together in preservation. Another veteran of Stewarts & Lloyds, No. 21 was one of a large number of 16in‑cylindered Hawthorn Leslies which became standard within the steelworks. It was the last steam locomotive overhauled at Corby and hauled the Industrial Railway Society ‘Farewell to Steam’ special in June 1973.

CELEBRATING TYNESIDE’S LOCOMOTIVE BUILDING HISTORY IS WHAT WE’RE ABOUT

The line‑up is a homage to the Forth Banks area of Newcastle, where Robert Stephenson & Company set up the world’s first locomotive factory in 1822, and later the home of Hawthorn Leslie and the combined Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns. Tanfield Railway director David Watchman said: “Celebrating Tyneside’s locomotive building history is what we’re about, and these two are exceptional examples of what the North East could produce.” Resident locomotives in steam will include the oldest working Robert Stephenson locomotive in the UK, 1891‑built 0‑6‑0T No. 3 Twizell, along with Hawthorn Leslie 0‑4‑0ST Keighley Corporation Gas Department No. 2 and RSH 0‑4‑0ST Sir Cecil A. Cochrane.