Oldest surviving ‘Black Five’ steams again at Strathspey
OLDEST surviving LMS ‘Black Five' No. 5025 has returned to steam at the Strathspey Railway for the first time in 28 years.
The Stanier 4-6-0, built by the Vulcan Foundry in 1934, made its first moves under its own steam on May 13, running around Aviemore shed yard and within station limits.
Five days later, it made a test run along the full length of the line, both for running-in and gauging purposes – almost certainly the first time it has run north of Boat of Garten since 1935.
It worked over this route when new to Perth shed, but was transferred south of the border to Edge Hill in October of that year. When it last steamed, in 1993, the opening of the Strathspey's Broomhill extension was still nearly a decade in the future.
Venturing even further north, the ‘Hiker' (as the class were nicknamed by Highland footplatemen) reached Dulnain Bridge, three-quarters of a mile past Broomhill – the current extremity of the Strathspey's northern extension towards Grantown-on-Spey.
Original condition
As this issue went to press, it had undertaken approximately 250 miles of light engine and loaded test runs, with further running-in and crew training trips to follow in early June, before it was to be painted in original LMS lined black livery.
“Words can't really describe it,” said Aviemore shed foreman
Nathan Lightowler. “It's one of those moments in life that doesn't happen very often.
"It's absolutely superb – it's taken a long time, and a lot more work and money than anybody thought, but it was well worth it in the end.”
Its major overhaul has cost about £519,000, including a complete front-end rebuild with new frame sections and cylinder castings, extensive boiler work, and a new tender tank. It has been funded by the locomotive's owners, the WEC Watkinson Trust, and its supporters; the Strathspey Railway Company, trust, and association; and a grant of £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Work has included restoring it as closely as possible to its as-built condition with details unique to the earliest Vulcan-built ‘Black Fives', including a taller chimney, no ‘piano front' step between the frames under the smokebox, and ‘scalloped' steam pipe covers with a cut-out in the front.
1968 celebrity
Such was the urgent need for the general-purpose mixed traffic 5MTs in 1934 that the LMS contracted out the construction of the first 50 examples (Nos. 5020-5069) to the Vulcan Foundry. Class doyen No. 5020 and the next five entered service in August 1934, but the first built in the LMS' Crewe Works – No. 5000, now part of the National Collection and displayed at Locomotion, Shildon – was not completed until February 1935.
During the last year of BR steam, No. 45025 achieved celebrity status working the ‘Belfast Boat Express' between Manchester Victoria and Heysham Harbour – the last steam-hauled named train on BR. In a rare instance of a dieselhauled service reverting to steam power, the Metropolitan-Vickers Co-Bos (Class 28s) had proved so unreliable that Carnforth-based ‘Black Fives' returned to the duty – with No. 45025 being one of the most regular performers in the final months, and the last steam locomotive to work the train on May 5, 1968.
Already the oldest surviving ‘Black Five' at that time, it was saved for preservation by the late Ted Watkinson (after whom the WEC Watkinson Trust is named) and initially ran at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway before taking up residence at Aviemore.
Its subsequent career included railtours on the Highland main line, and it was the first steam locomotive to reach Kyle of Lochalsh in preservation, in 1982.