HST power car for Gwili Railway

Porterbrook donates Class 43 locomotive to Welsh Railways Trust.

THE Gwili Railway has become the first preserved railway in Wales to become home to an HST power car, thanks to the generosity of Porterbrook. No. 43056 has been donated to the Welsh Railways Trust and should be moving from Laira to its new home in the near future.

The Welsh Railways Trust was formed in 2019, as a result of the merger of the Caerphilly Railway Preservation Society and the Gwili Vintage Carriage Group. It owns Class 03 No. D2178, also based on the Gwili Railway, as well as Hunslet Austerity Haulwen and also has the NRM’s Taff Vale Railway No. 28 in its care. The addition of an HST power car to its collection will enable it to tell the story of Welsh railways right through from 1874 to 2019 as part of a museum project.

Over the coming months, conservation and cosmetic work will be carried out on No. 43056, and it is hoped to have it ready for display by Easter 2022. Longer term, it should go undercover as part of Project Dan Do, a carriage shed which will provide a storage facility for vehicles as well as an area for display and education.

■ Two power cars which entered preservation earlier this year have been started up for the first time since their change of ownership. No. 43081, based at Crewe Heritage Centre, and No. 43082, one of three located at the Colne Valley Railway, were both fired up on November 20.

ENO. 43056 was originally an Eastern Region power car (from set 254001), but became part of the Great Western Railway fleet, based at Landore, in 2009. Named The Royal British Legion the following year, it was stopped just before the end of HST workings out of Paddington in May 2019. Since then, it has been stored at Long Marston and Laira.