LUCKY 13: THE INDUSTRIALS RETURNING TO STEAM IN 2017
WHILE SUCH main line celebrities as Clun Castle, Clan Line and Bahamas are preparing to return to action in 2017, we looked around the foremost industrial preservation sites to find which of their locomotives are set to steam this year.
At the Foxfield Railway, Hunslet ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST Wimblebury is expected back in traffic during the first part of the year after major boiler surgery, and not so far behind are a pair of 0-4-0STs, Bagnall Hawarden and Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns ‘Eustace Forth’ (W/No. 7063 of 1942). Hawarden is now back on its wheels following axlebox repairs, and it is hoped that all three will be able to play a role in the Foxfield’s 50th anniversary celebrations. A little further west, the Chasewater Railway is also expecting to return a Bagnall 0-4-0ST to action in the very near future. Dunlop No. 6 (W/No. 2648 of 1941) could make its debut as early as March, with the boiler back in the frames following work
STEAM RAILWAY presents a round-up of engines coming back from overhaul.
at Locomotive Maintenance Services during 2016. After a period in NCB blue, the former Battlefield Line resident will regain authentic green livery. Also well under way at Chasewater is the overhaul of ex-Walsall gasworks Sentinel 0-4-0VBT W/No. 9632.
As revealed in SR463, the Elsecar Railway hopes to welcome back Sentinel 0-4-0VBT William, as well as Peckett ‘OQ’ class ‘Mardy Monster’ this year. It is, however, now expected that the 1954-built Peckett will be available only for inspection of progress, rather than in action, during the April 15 ‘Welcome Back’ event planned by the Yorkshire coalfield line. At the other end of the scale, diminutive Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0ST Millom is expected back in traffic at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre after a ‘ten-yearly’ overhaul. The one-time Millom Haematite locomotive will be entering its third period of preserved operation at Quainton Road. Also expected back after a ‘ten-yearly’ is Tanfield Railway-based Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns 0-4-0ST Sir Cecil A. Cochrane. In 1998, it was one of the first preserved standard gauge locomotives in Britain to have an allnew boiler fitted, and the latest overhaul is therefore expected to be speedy. After withdrawal in January, Sir Cecil A. Cochrane had already been stripped for inspection by early February. Another locomotive which received an all-new boiler in the late 1990s was Hunslet 0-6-0ST Brookes No. 1 at the Middleton Railway. A steam test is imminent for the engine, which was formerly owned by the Halifax-based Brookes Chemical Company, while other recent work has included the machining and fitting of two new die blocks to the motion. It is hoped that Brookes No. 1 will be back in traffic by the summer, just a stone’s throw from where it was built. A Hunslet that has already steamed (albeit not fully reassembled) is former Smithywood Coking Plant ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST W/No. 3193. The boiler of the 1944-built locomotive was steamed in November and has now been returned to the frames at a private site in Norfolk. Its planned home is the Mid-Norfolk Railway. Although built to the same design in the same workshop and in the same year, ex-Maesteg Colliery locomotive Maureen currently looks very different. Converted to a tender locomotive at the Mid-Hants Railway in the early 21st century, the one-time Longmoor Military Railway locomotive is undergoing overhaul at the Ribble Steam Railway, with new copper firebox stays being made and fitted in-house. ‘Douglas’, as it is now known, is expected to steam before the year is out.