IN THE WORKS

Norfolk’s ‘iron war horse’ returns to duty this summer

Looks can be deceiving. To all intents and purposes, the machine currently residing in the North Norfolk Railway’s locomotive works at Weybourne is a Riddles War Department 2‑10‑0. Although it bears a British Railways number, No. 90775 never hauled a train for BR in its entire life. Eagle‑eyed readers will have noticed the anomaly; the number 90775 is entirely fifictional as the BR ex‑WD locomotives were numbered 90750‑74. Of the three UK‑based preserved ex‑WD ‘Austerity’ 2‑10‑0s (a fourth, No. 73755 Longmoor, is preserved in the Netherlands Railway Museum) none were owned nor operated by British Railways. No. 600 Gordon, currently out of service at the Severn Valley Railway, spent its working life at the Longmoor Military Railway in Hampshire, while No. 3672 ‘Dame Vera Lynn’ was shipped to Egypt shortly after it was built, and then sold to Hellenic State Railways of Greece after the Second World War. Let’s remind ourselves of No. 90775’s history. It was brand new from North British of Glasgow in 1943 as W/ No. 25438 (numbered by the MoD as No. 3652). It went to Egypt later that year along with 15 other ‘Dub‑Dees’ (including No. 3672 ‘Dame Vera Lynn’) where all were placed into storage for the duration of the conflflict.

Greek gifts

After the war, Greece was severely short of motive power ‑ of the 94 standard gauge steam engines in the country, only 46 were worth repairing. British military authorities in Egypt declared that the 16 2‑10‑0s in store were surplus to requirements, so all were sent to Greece in January 1946. No. 3652 was renumbered again as No. 951 of Hellenic State Railways and worked there until 1967, when it

TOM BRIGHT Sitting in the winter sun, the boiler, smokebox and fifirebox from No. 90775 await their return to the locomotive’s frames for the hydraulic and steam tests. According to Keith Ashford: “An additional pair of mud hole doors have been cut into the upper...

TOM BRIGHT Aside from the work required on the boiler, repairs were also needed to the fifirebox. “There has been the replacement of the inner fifirebox corners at foundation ring level, along with considerable sections of the outer fifirebox wrapper, backhead...