Original ‘WC’ nO. 34092 CITY OF WELLS

Affectionately nicknamed ‘The Volcano’ by virtue of its Giesl ejector - the only member of the class in preservation to be so equipped - ‘WC’ No. 34092 City of Wells was the first Bulleid 4-6-2 to be rescued from Barry scrapyard. The innovative blastpipe arrangement was fitted in May 1986, as a result of a successful experiment in 1962 when ‘Battle of Britain’ No. 34064 Fighter Command was similarly fitted, in an attempt to improve smoke lifting and reduce fire throwing without choking the draught, as traditional spark arrestors were known to spoil the freesteaming qualities of the ‘Light Pacifics’. Outshopped in September 1949 as No. 34092 Wells, it was renamed in 1950 as City of Wells. While allocated to Stewarts Lane, the ‘Light Pacific’ was chosen to haul special trains conveying President Khrushchev of the USSR and King Faisal of Iraq in May and July 1956 respectively. Arriving at Barry in March 1965, ‘The Volcano’ only spent six years in the scrapyard before it was rescued and sent to the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway for restoration where, in April 1980, it was the second ‘Light Pacific’ to return to steam. A regular main line performer during the 1980s, its boiler ticket expired nine years later and City of Wells spent the next decade on the sidelines, before returning to steam once again in June 2014. Despite being a ‘Worth Valley’ engine, No. 34092 has spent the last two years based at the East Lancs Railway, and will remain in residence there for the rest of the year.