INDUSTRIAL ROUND-UP
Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0ST Isabel: Final adjustments are being made to the boiler of the 1919-built locomotive (Works No. 3437) at the Epping Ongar Railway prior to a hydraulic test, and it is hoped to return the engine to service by the end of September. A new chimney is also to be made to replace the life-expired original. Hunslet 0-6-0ST ‘Jessie’: Converted to side tank form as ‘Thomas’, this former East Moors Steelworks locomotive (Works No. 1873) was heading to Denmark and the Netherlands in May, for events at their respective national railway museums at Odense (May 11-14) and Utrecht (May 24-28). It is the only European trip the engine is making this year, but by no means its first, having also been to Belgium’s Stoomcentrum Maldegem. Says owner Mike Pearce: “It once went across the North Sea eight times in one season!” Hunslet 0-6-0ST Beatrice: Embsay-based Works No. 2705 made a brief visit to the National Railway Museum’s Shildon site, Locomotion, for the bank holiday weekend of April 29-May 1. The 1945-built locomotive, formerly of Ackton Hall Colliery in Yorkshire, hauled brake van rides alongside Furness Railway 0-4-0 No. 20. Peckett ‘OQ’ Class 0-6-0ST ‘Mardy Monster’: Reassembly of mighty Works No. 2150 can now be completed at the Elsecar Railway with the return of its boiler, following overhaul by Locomotive Maintenance Services in Loughborough. The ex-Mardy Colliery machine, famed as the sole survivor of the largest Peckett design for the domestic market, last steamed in September 2014. Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns 0-4-0ST Sir Cecil A. Cochrane: Withdrawn from traffic in January, Tanfield Railway-based Works No. 7409 returned to traffic on Easter Monday, April 14 with a new ‘ten year’ boiler ticket.