BEATTIE WELL TANK COMES HOME - AFTER 143 YEARS
Beattie well tank No. 30587 will be returning to the city of its birth for the first time since it was built, when it visits the Manchester Museum of Science & Industry in June. Built by the Gorton-based firm, Beyer Peacock & Co. in 1874, it will be the first time the LSWR 2-4-0WT has visited Manchester in 143 years, having spent the entirety of its working life hauling London suburban trains and, more famously, china clay trains on the Wenfordbridge branch in Cornwall. Staying for three weeks from June 12, the Bodmin & Wenford Railway-based National Collection engine will join MOSI’s Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns 0-4-0ST Agecroft No. 1 and replica Stephenson 2-2-0 Planet in providing brake van rides on the museum’s demonstration line, steaming on Thursdays and weekends. Subject to the weather, ‘EM2’ Co-Co No. 27001 Ariadne and the 1840s-built Manchester & Birmingham Railway firstclass carriage will be displayed outside, while the doors of the ‘Power Hall’ will be thrown open to give visitors a better view of the replica Novelty and the LMS Medical Examination Carriage. After its MOSI visit, No. 30587 will take part in the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway’s inaugural ‘Little Engines’ gala on July 7-9, alongside Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway-based ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST No. 71515 ‘Mech Navvies Ltd.’ (see Industrial News). No. 30587 visited the North West for an East Lancashire Railway gala in June 2007, but failed and was unable to run.