4277 LEAVES DARTMOUTH FOR CHURNET VALLEY VISIT
Paignton’s other 2-8-0T is also going places, as No. 5239 heads to Cranmore for overhaul.
Dartmouth Steam Railwaybased GWR ‘42XX’ No. 4277 is to spend the last few months of its boiler certificate at the Churnet Valley Railway - in BR black. Expected to arrive at Cheddleton in early October, it will debut in its new guise at the line’s 25th anniversary ga l ao nO c t ober 20-22, running alongside guest ‘Manor’ No. 7820 Dinmore Manor. It will then stay to work ‘Santa Specials’, and ‘Winter Warmer’ trains between Christmas and New Year. A special farewell event on the Cauldon Lowe branch is planned for February 3/4, before its boiler certificate expires on February 10. It is the first time a locomotive owned by the DSR has gone on medium or long-term loan to another railway. Only ‘Manor’ No. 7827 Lydham Manor has made guest appearances elsewhere, and then only for gala weekends. It will be a welcome reappearance on the hire circuit by No. 4277, which toured preserved lines under the ownership of Peter Best between 1996 and 2003, but which has stayed at the DSR since 2008. The repaint at the CVR, from its current lined Great Western livery, will be the first time it has worn BR black since the final years of its previous boiler ticket. This time it will have the earlier ‘cycling lion’ crest instead of the late ‘ferret and dartboard’ that it carried on that occasion. Its DSR ‘Hercules’ nameplates will also be removed. Also due to leave the DSR, for the first time in over 40 years, is ‘5205’ 2-8-0T No. 5239 ‘Goliath’, which is to undergo a contract overhaul at the East Somerset Railway. Last steamed in 2015, it is expected to move to Cranmore imminently and be returned to steam within two years. It will undergo a short period of running-in trials at the ESR before returning to the DSR in time for the start of its 2020 operating season. It will be the latest in a series of fast-track contract overhauls carried out by the ESR, following Ivatt ‘2MT’ 2-6-0 No. 46447 (on loan from the Isle of Wight Steam Railway) and 2-6-2T No. 41313 (also owned by the IoWSR). Having outshopped the latter engine in June, the ESR team have now begun the overhaul of resident Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST ‘Lady Nan’, but the appearance of No. 5239 will continue to provide work until the boiler certificate of resident ‘56XX’ 0-6-2T No. 5637 expires in 2020. With No. 4277 due to enter Churston works for over h aul immediately upon its return from the CVR, the dispatch of No. 5239 to Cranmore will allow DSR staff to concentrate on the overhaul of the ‘42XX’. Purchased from Barry by the Dart Valley Railway in June 1973, No. 5239 was largely restored in the former Newton Abbot steam shed before arriving at Paignton in June 1976. It entered service on the Kingswear line two years later and has stayed there ever since.