Richboro loco purchase completed
Thealnvalleyrailwayhascompleted the purchase of its flagship locomotive Richboro thanks to a £12,800 donation from a big-hearted couple.
Coupled with Gift Aid, the money completed the last £16,000 instalment needed to buy the Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T, No. 1243 of 1917.
The railway’s finance director Robin Mitchell said: “When we were offered the chance to buy Richboro,
I thought it may be a struggle to raise the asking price of £130,000. This was mainly because we were a newly established railway without huge funds.
“I need not have been concerned, as our members and supporters were so generous. We are so grateful to everyone who contributed to this purchase to make the Aln Valley Railway a proud owner of our own steam engine.”
The Friends of Richboro was launched only 15 months ago, with members paying an amount by standing order over 24 months. Once all the standing order payments are complete, invitations will be sent to all who contributed to attend an exclusive event to travel behind Richboro on the first train it hauls following its purchase.
Workhorse
Delivered new to the Inland Waterways & Docks, No. 1243 worked at the Richborough Military Port in Kent after which it gained the name Richboro.the port supplied the British Expeditionary Force in France, using the world’s first roll-on roll-off ferry vessel.
Richboro was sold to W Craig & Sons at Ifton Colliery in Shropshire in 1926 and then came under National Coal Board ownership at Nationalisation in January 1947. It worked the two-mile branch between the colliery and the BR exchange sidings at Western Rhyn on the Shrewsbury to Chester line.
Moved to Gresford Colliery near Wrexham in December 1969, it was stored there unused until that colliery closed in November 1973.
Sold to the Llangollen Railway, it moved there in February 1976 and was displayed outside the Dapol factory for several years.
Eventually it was bought by Michael Fairnington at Wooler, where it was restored. After a brief spell at the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway, its last move was to the Aln Valley Railway, where major boiler work was completed in 2017. It entered traffic in December 2017.
The following autumn, the railway launched its appeal to complete the purchase of the locomotive from Michael.
In March 2019, Richboro hauled the first steam working over the 135-yard seven-arch Crawledge Viaduct since June 1966.