Back in steam and in public, after 44 years

IT’S BEEN 44 years since GWR ‘Castle’ 4-6-0 4073 Pendennis Castle worked its final train in the UK ahead of export to Australia... now it’s back. In the 21 years since being repatriated, the partially-completed ‘celebrity’ was displayed over the August Bank Holiday weekend, for the second of the Great Western Society’s 60th anniversary events. In light steam, it was shunted outside the shed to pose in a line-up between its stablemates.

It comes ahead of a full launch of the locomotive, expected next spring. It is anticipated that 4079 will spend a couple of years on Didcot’s demonstration line, before being made available for hire to other railways. Although the tender has been painted and lined, the engine has yet to receive its final green top coats, lining, along with numerous smaller items, and is not yet able to move under its own power.

Matt Stoddon A1 Pacific 4-6-2 60163 Tornado crosses Ferryden Viaduct, just south of Montrose, while working the return leg of ‘The Aberdonian’ from Aberdeen to Edinburgh on September 2.