‘WORTH VALLEY’ TO RECREATE LMS PUSH-PULL TRAIN?

An LMS push-pull train could be re-created to run with Ivatt 2-6-2T No. 41241 or ‘Jinty’ No. 47279 at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. The bold proposal has been put forward to restore the KWVR’s two LMS non-corridor Third coaches - 1938-built No. 12066 and 1950-built No. 12244 - to represent one of the ‘motor-train’ sets that formed the regular services on the Keighley-Oxenhope line, latterly with Ivatt tanks. Writing in the KWVR’s appropriately-named house magazine Push & Pull, Chairman Matt Stroh said that the proposal is a “longer term idea” and that the initial plan would be to create a ‘cosmetic version’ of such a set, rather than a working prototype. Two authentic classes of locomotive are available, in the form of No. 41241 - currently undergoing overhaul at Haworth, with a target steaming date of June 2018 for the railway’s 50th anniversary - and No. 47279, which last ran in 2011 and is now stored in Oxenhope museum pending a slot in the overhaul queue. Many of the Ivatt ‘Mickey Mouse’ tanks, together with their BR Standard ‘84XXX’ derivatives, were fitted out with the vacuumcontrolled LMS push-pull gear, while a handful of ‘Jinties’ in the Swansea area also received it - but neither No. 41241 nor No. 47279 were among them. A fully working set would therefore be an even longer term aspiration, as the fitting of the necessary equipment to the Ivatt could not be done until its next ‘ten-yearly’ overhaul. The coaches are rare examples of the Stanier nine-compartment Third design. No. 12066 has run on the KWVR but is now out of use; however, the possibility of restoring it for the 50th anniversary celebrations is being explored, as it was in the formation of the reopening train in 1968. No. 12244 is also in storage, having previously seen passenger service at two now-defunct preservation sites - Steamport Southport, and Padiham Steam Centre. It was converted with windows in one end for push-pull working, and could therefore be further modified to represent an appropriate brake coach.

PETER SPILSBURY Ivatt ‘2Mt’ 2-6-2t No. 41286 propels an lMS ‘motor-train’ set down vulcan Bank, near the vulcan Foundry, with the lCGB North West Branch’s ‘Push and Pull Farewell tour’ on February 12 1966.