B12 bows out at North Norfolk – but it will be back for centenary
POPULAR LNER B12 No. 8572 will shortly bow out of traffic at the North Norfolk Railway for overhaul but will be back in steam for its centenary year.
The Great Eastern Railway-design Holden 4-6-0 is due to steam for a special farewell weekend on October 30/31, paired with the Gresley `Quad-Art' suburban coach set and departing Sheringham at 10.20am, noon and 1.40pm. The corresponding departures from Holt are at 11.07am, 12.47pm and 2.27pm. Passengers will receive souvenir tickets.
The B12 will then go into the works for its third major overhaul in preservation, which the NNR hopes to complete by the end of 2023 – meaning that the 1928-built engine will be back in steam in good time for its centenary.
It is estimated that the overhaul will cost about £400,000, and the locomotive's owner, the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway Society, will launch a fundraising campaign at the farewell weekend, called `Steaming into the Next Century'.
Unique survivor
A commemorative book, A Pictorial History of the B12s, will be available during the weekend – the third in the Norfolk's Railways series by Dennis Greeno and Richard Adderson and published by the society. Other fundraising plans will be publicised in due course.
The B12 has run almost 70,000 miles since it first returned to steam on the NNR in 1995, following an overhaul at Kloster Mansfeld in the former East Germany. It received its second major overhaul between 2007 and 2012, with the boiler going to Chatham Steam in Kent and the rest of the locomotive to Riley & Son (E) Ltd, while the tender was overhauled at the NNR. Between its return to steam in 2012 and the end of the NNR's 2019 season, it covered almost 33,000 miles.
It was one of the first two steam locomotives acquired by the society in 1967 for use on the NNR, the other being GER Y14 0-6-0 No. 564 – both being the sole survivors of classes synonymous with East Anglia.
As well as the B12 and Y14, the M&GNJR Society owns WD 2-10-0 No. 90775 (currently operational), Class 31 D5631 (recently returned to traffic after overhaul), Class 08 D3935 and a Class 101 DMU (operational), as well as Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST No. 1700 of 1938 Wissington and Hunslet 16in-cylinder 0-6-0ST No. 1982 of 1940 Ring Haw.
It acquired the Hunslet and DMU last year as part of its support package for the NNR during the pandemic.
Imminent return
Wissington’s 10-yearly overhaul is almost complete, with the locomotive having undergone a steam test in August, but subsequent tests revealed a fault in its cast iron safety valve body, meaning that a replacement is having to be made. It is expected back in service soon, after which Ring Haw will take its place in the works for overhaul.