INDUSTRIAL NEWS
Historic Hunslet 0-6-0ST returns to the North East after 43 years in the Yorkshire Dales.
An ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST that played an almost forgotten role in the fight for industrial steam’s survival in the 1960s has moved to the North Tyneside Steam Railway.
South Hetton No. 69 moved from the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway on August 26 after being bought by a North Tyneside member.
The Hunslet-built machine (Works No. 3785) had spent all of its preservation career at Embsay, having arrived in Yorkshire during 1977. Although a regular performer in its early years in the dales, it has not worked since 1984.
Work on the overhaul of the 1953-built locomotive is expected to start this winter. Having been stored outside for more than 35 years, the overhaul is expected to be substantial and volunteers at the line are keen to learn from the experience. Once complete, the locomotive is expected to be ideally suited to the two-mile, steeply graded running line from the line’s Percy Main base.
At South Hetton, on the Durham coast, No. 69 became one of the last survivors of industrial steam in the area. Sister Hunslet ‘Austerity’ No. 62 was reckoned to be the last working steam locomotive on the system, but was cut up in January 1977. In contrast, No. 69 was sold for preservation in May that year.
Ordered new by the National Coal Board to work trains from South Hetton and Murton collieries to the top of the rope-worked inclines from Hesledon to Seaham, No. 69 was normally repaired at Philadelphia on the Lambton collieries system. But, in 1963, it was sent back to the Hunslet Engine Company, where it had a boiler swap and was fitted with a mechanical stoker.
It was trialled on the Lambton railway during May 1964 in an effort to keep steam power at the head of trains on the area’s colliery railways. After returning to South Hetton later in 1964, No. 69 kept its mechanical stoker until 1967, when it was disconnected.
At the same time as it took delivery of its new ‘Austerity’, the NTSR received former Lambton system NCB tool van No. 21, also from Embsay.