Isle of Wight Ivatts will be named for 1960s weekend
BOTH Ivatt 2-6-2Ts on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway are to be temporarily named and renumbered for the line's 1960s weekend.
The pair of LMS-design 2MTs, Nos. 41298 and 41313, will carry vinyl nameplates to become Nos. W1 Ryde and W5 Cowes for the September 25/26 event, carrying on the tradition set by the island's LSWR O2 0-4-4Ts and LBSCR ‘Terrier' and E1 0-6-0Ts.
The IoWSR is creating an alternative version of 1967 for the weekend, with the premise that steam has survived on the island, and six Ivatt tanks have been shipped across the Solent to replace the elderly Adams O2s.
Class 05 diesel D2554, which came to the island in 1966 for use on the electrification work and was given the nickname ‘Nuclear Fred', will run with a 1960s engineering train, while O2 No. W24 Calbourne will be displayed in the station yard as though newly preserved by the Wight Locomotive Society, with some of the line's younger volunteers playing the part of the teenage enthusiasts of the 1960s.
The presence of Nos. 41298 and 41313 on the IoWSR already represents what might have been had the almost-identical BR Standard 2MT tanks been sent to the island as proposed in the early 1960s, before the decision was taken to electrify the Ryde-Shanklin line instead.
Two island locomotives have previously carried the name Ryde: Isle of Wight Railway Beyer Peacock 2-4-0T No. 1, built in 1864 and scrapped at Eastleigh in 1940 despite having been set aside for preservation; and E1 No. W3, brought to the island in 1932 and scrapped in 1959. The name Cowes was applied to Isle of Wight Central Railway Beyer Peacock 2-4-0T No. 4, ‘Terrier' No. W10, and finally O2 No. W15, which was scrapped in 1956.