‘N7’ COULD RETURN TO STEAM FOR CENTENARY – ‘AT A PINCH’
East Anglian Railway Museum considers overhauling unique Great Eastern-design 0-6-2T.
Unique surviving LNER ‘N7’ No. 69621 could return to steam for its centenary in 2024.
Trustees of the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chappel & Wakes Colne are considering overhauling the Great Easterndesign 0-6-2T once the centre’s current project – Bagnall 0-6-0ST Lamport No. 3 – is complete.
Although the idea is still in its earliest stages, and dependent upon finance, EARM chairman Pete Martin told Steam Railway that an “in-depth evaluation” of the locomotive has been sanctioned, and that “the hope is to do it for its centenary” – although he admitted: “It will be a pinch.”
The ‘N7’ was the last locomotive constructed at Stratford Works, being turned out under LNER auspices in March 1924, but is believed to have been the last engine laid down with a GER number; its first restoration at Chappel in the 1980s revealed ‘999’ on the frames, and it entered service with the identity of
No. 999E, before becoming LNER No. 7999 and later No. 9621.
Following the completion of that restoration in 1989, it ventured onto the main line – including a return to Stratford Works to mark its closure in 1991, and shuttles on the Marks Tey-Sudbury branch adjacent to the museum. The possibility of overhauling it to main line standard this time, said Mr Martin, “has been suggested – but it will depend on what we find when we take it apart.
“It’s not going to be doing what it did years ago, like going up Rickmansworth Bank on ‘Steam on the Met’ – it’s an antique machine, and we have to be guarded with it.
“We’d use it here for enhanced driver experiences, and send it out for the odd hire, with our own crews.
“It’s always been our ambition to run on the branch line, but it’s on the back burner – what we operate is sufficient for families with ‘Thomas’, and once you start to stretch outside your boundaries, you stretch your resources.”
If No. 69621 does return to the main line, it would mean that both surviving LNER 0-6-2Ts are so certified – as GNR ‘N2’ No. 1744 is set to operate North Norfolk Railway dining services to Cromer.
The ‘N7’ last steamed at the Churnet Valley Railway in April 2015, after a second ‘ten-year’ ticket which had included a stint on the North Norfolk Railway and visits to several other preserved lines. It subsequently received a cosmetic restoration for static display at Chappel.
“It wasn’t forgotten,” said Mr Martin, “but it took a bit of a back seat, because we had a lot of other things on – ‘Lamport’ was coming to pieces, and we were planning and laying the foundations for our new running shed, plus trying to run so many events!
“But now there’s an emerging interest in doing something with it – we’ve got a number of younger members who’ve never seen it run.”
A ring-fenced fund for the ‘N7’, with earnings from its previous boiler certificate, contains a fivefigure sum, he said – but further funds will be needed to meet the full cost of an overhaul, and donations will be welcomed.
“A lot of the steaming fees went to pay off the debt from the overhaul before,” he explained. “It was only in the last couple of years that it made anything at all, and then it kept needing repairs.”
How and where the overhaul will be carried out will also depend on the results of its evaluation, but it is expected that the boiler will be sent away for a contract repair.
With Lamport No. 3’s bottom end largely complete following its re-wheeling last year (SR500), its firebox is shortly to be sent away to a contractor as a pattern for a replacement, and its firebox wrapper is ready for welding – although progress has been slowed by the coronavirus lockdown.
Said Mr Martin: “‘Lamport’s’ boiler will be done in conjunction with having a look at the ‘N7’, so as one rolls to completion we can start taking big bits off the other.
“You’ve got to have a methodical approach, or you end up with a pile of bits and they get lost.”
Donations marked for the ‘N7’ can be sent to the EARM at Chappel Station, Colchester, Essex CO6 2DS. Supporters wishing to add Gift Aid should enclose a stamped addressed envelope for the necessary form.