NRM agrees to LSWR T9 staying at Swanage

VICTORIAN 4-4-0 LSWR T9 30120 is to stay at the Swanage Railway, thanks to a new agreement with its owner the National Railway Museum. The new agreement will see the 1899-built loco continue to be stored at the Dorset line where it has been since its boiler certificate expired in August 2020. The agreement includes provision for “limited disassembly, including a boiler lift” for the Swanage Railway Trust to “assess the potential for the locomotive to be returned to steam”.

A timetable for this has yet to be decided by the Swanage Railway.

If overhauled, it would join the Trust’s 1893-built LSWR T3 563, which was gifted by the NRM to the Railway in 2017. Last steamed in 1945, it is currently under overhaul at the Flour Mill Workshop, Forest of Dean with a target completion date of 2023.

With the remains of Corfe Castle dominating the scene, T9 30120 heads south on March 20, 2014. (Andrew PM Wright)