Coal Board CoaCh returns alongside ‘austerity’ tank
Double celebration at tanfield railway as No. 49 and North eastern carriage enter service.
One of the Tanfield Railway’s best-known locomotives has been welcomed back into service, along with a freshly restored carriage that recalls the 24-hour miners’ trains at Ashington Colliery in Northumberland.
TV historian John Grundy relaunched National Coal Board ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST No. 49 and 1901-built North Eastern Railway carriage No. A15 into service at East Tanfield station on August 18, as part of the railway’s ‘Mining Heritage Weekend’ celebrating local collieries and their railways. Now identified as NER No. 2853, the coach has been restored in the style of similar vehicles that were used on the NCB passenger service centred around Ashington Colliery. ‘A15’ was the next number in the sequence used for passenger carriages on the system from nationalisation until the late 1950s. First used on commuter services from Newcastle to the north Tyneside coast, the carriage found its way to East Anglia under LNER ownership before eventually becoming a family home in the 1940s, in the village of Wiggenhall St Germans, near King’s Lynn. The coach body has been completely restored since it was brought back to the North East in 2013. Timberwork was carried out by Stanegate Restorations & Replicas in Haltwhistle while an ex-GWR ‘Siphon G’ underframe was modified and refurbished for use with the carriage.
The railway has not ruled out further colliery identities appearing on passenger carriages in the future to accompany its fleet of industrial locomotives.
The ‘Austerity’ (Works No. 7098) has returned to service after a seven-year absence and an extensive overhaul, which has included a new firebox and front tubeplate. The boiler work was carried out at Israel Newton’s workshops in Yorkshire, while volunteers at Tanfield focused on mechanical work.
The 1943-built locomotive was withdrawn from Backworth Colliery in 1976. First restored in the 1990s, it is now on its third stint in traffic at Tanfield.