41313 RETURNS TO STEAM AFTER OVER 50 YEARS
Ivatt 2-6-2T No. 41313 has steamed again, 52 years after being withdrawn by BR, and 42 years after leaving Barry scrapyard. The ‘2MT’ made its first moves under its own power at the East Somerset Railway on June 3, following a two-year contract restoration for its owners, the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. It was the first time the ex-Southern Region locomotive had run since it was withdrawn in November 1965. It is to be officially launched on June 24, alongside fellow ‘2MT’, 2-6-0 No. 46447. It is then contracted to run at the ESR until the end of September, when it will head to the Isle of Wight; an exact date for the move is still to be confirmed. There are no plans for it to enter IoWSR passenger service this year. As sister engine No. 41298 will be undergoing valve and piston work during the autumn and winter, a special event with both in steam together is being deferred to 2018. Completion of No. 41313 means all three of the ‘2MTs’ preserved by the Ivatt Trust, and donated to the IoWSR in 2006, have now steamed. No. 41298, purchased from BR in 1967, ran for the first time at the IoWSR in August 2014; while No. 46447 followed that October after contract restoration by the ESR, where it is now on long-term loan. Fitted out with air-braking to work with island stock, No. 41313 has been painted to match No. 41298, and carries a pair of original late BR transfers. The ‘‘2MT’ was used on June 4 to shunt the next overhaul project - resident Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST Works No. 1719 ‘Lady Nan’ - into Cranmore’s workshops. Requests from mainland lines to hire No. 41313 before it crosses the Solent have been declined, as the IoWSR is in the process of drawing up guidelines for sending its engines elsewhere. Company Secretary Iain Whitlam said: “While we’re pleased to play our part in the wider preservation scene, as demonstrated by ‘O2’
No. W24 Calbourne’s 2012 tour, we are keen not to dilute No. 41313’s return to traffic on the IoWSR. “Many owners hire out locomotives to earn income, but we are in a different situation; we rely on our locomotives to meet railway commitments. If we accepted all requests, the locomotive could arrive requiring workshop time and resource before it had turned a wheel on our own line, and staff would be stretched running our own service and overseeing use on other lines.” Another consideration, added IoWSR Engineering Manager Bob Huxtable, was last year’s imposition of a weight restriction on the linkspan (boarding ramp) of the Wightlink ferries, which prevented GWR ‘Small Prairie’ No. 5521 (‘L150’) from appearing at the May steam gala (SR456). He said: “Although the restriction is now lifted, this highlights the risk of a locomotive being stranded on the mainland if a linkspan became damaged and down-rated in the future.”