TAFF VALE No. 85 IS ‘HOMEWARD’ BOUND FOR BLAENAVON GALA
Taff Vale Railway 0-6-2T No. 85 is to return to South Wales for the first time in almost 90 years, for the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway’s steam gala.
During the locomotive’s road movement to the September 14-16 event, it is also hoped to display it in Cardiff Bay on September 12, recalling its pre-Grouping days hauling coal trains from the valleys to the city’s dockland area.
The PBR is in discussions with the Welsh Government regarding the visit to the bay, with the Pierhead Building being the proposed location.
At the gala, No. 85 will work passenger, vintage and goods trains alongside resident RSH ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST No. 71515 and Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST Rosyth No. 1, and it will also be steamed for a 30742 Charters photo shoot after the event. The second guest is Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0ST Works No. 1742 ‘Millom’ from the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, which will then stay at Blaenavon to assist with Halloween and Christmas trains – the latter now being a two-engine operation. Built for the TVR by Neilson Reid in 1899, No. 85 was absorbed into GWR stock in 1922, only to be withdrawn five years later. It was sold in 1929 to the Lambton, Hetton & Joicey Colliery Co., a move that ensured its survival into preservation at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in 1970.
It is currently on loan to the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway, and the PBR commented: “Huge thanks go to our friends at the KWVR for supplying the locomotive, and to Embsay for releasing it from its current hire contract.”