BOTH PRESERVED ‘PUGS’ IN LINE FOR RETURN TO STEAM
LYR Trust seeks to restore Aspinall 0-4-0STs 51218 and 19, following return of 0-6-0ST 752.
WITHOUT EVEN LOOKING TOO FAR, THERE WAS A HECK OF A LOT THAT WANTED DOING RICHARD GREENWOOD
Both surviving Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway ‘Pug’ 0-4-0STs could return to steam.
Having completed the restoration of its Aspinall Class ‘23’ 0-6-0ST No. 752 at the East Lancashire Railway (see pages 10/11), the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Trust is now setting its sights on overhauling its ‘Pug’ No. 51218 – and classmate No. 19, which has been steamed only once in preservation, could also be on course for a return to service.
The group plans to have the boilers of both locomotives professionally inspected during 2020, and says that it “would like to hear from anyone interested in (fully or partially) sponsoring” the restoration of No. 19.
Both engines are currently static exhibits, No. 51218 being displayed at Oxenhope on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, while No. 19 moved from the Ribble Steam Railway to the ELR on January 24. It will appear in temporary BR livery as No. 51241 during the latter’s Spring Steam Gala in March celebrating the return of No. 752 (see story below).
Last steamed in 2006, No. 51218 received a cosmetic restoration in 2018 as part of the KWVR’s 50th anniversary celebrations, having been the first locomotive to arrive at the fledgling preserved line in January 1965.
Its surviving classmate was purchased from industrial use at United Glass Bottle Manufacturers Ltd of Charlton in January 1967, by a member of the London Railway Preservation Society. Initially kept at Luton, it moved to the KWVR in
October of that year, but underwent only one trial steaming and has been on static display ever since, latterly at Steamport Southport before that preservation group moved to Ribble in 1999.
Richard Greenwood of the LYR Trust said that No. 51218 is known to be “mechanically quite worn – that’s what happens when an engine has such little wheels! – and of course it will need boiler work.”
The other ‘Pug’ is “likely to be quite a heavy job” he added. On its sole preservation-era
steaming, thought to have taken place in the early 1970s, he described it as having failed owing to “old age”.
“Without even looking too far, there was a heck of a lot that wanted doing,” he recalled. “It was well-worn, shall we say.”
For more on the history of the ‘Pugs’, see pages 49-53.