BRC BECOMES INDUSTRIAL HOT SPOT
A rare and freshly overhauled Sentinel, plus a newly arrived Hawthorn Leslie, are among six industrials expected to steam at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre gala on May 6/7. With its streamlined look, 1945-built Sentinel 0-4-0VBT Tottenham Gas Works No. 11 returned to steam in 2017 after 30 years out of action. Works No. 9366 entered preservation at Quainton Road in 1970. It is hoped that the Associated Portland Cement Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST Swanscombe No. 4 will also enter traffic at the event. The 1928-built locomotive arrived at the BRC in January, and the finishing touches are being made to a lengthy overhaul that was previously being carried out at Barrow Hill. In an odd twist of fate, Swanscombe No. 4 will be working alongside a locomotive named after the same Kentish town, Barclay 0-4-0ST Swanscombe. This 1891-built locomotive was delivered new to Northfleet Coal and Ballast Co. in Kent but spent the majority of its life in Essex. Further enhancing the Kent theme will be Bagnall 0-4-0ST Frasers and Chalmers Engineering No. V75 (Works No. 2469 of 1932) which spent its career in Erith. Also expected to be in action are former Millom Haematite Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0ST Works No. 1742 of 1946 ‘Millom’, and 1964-built ex-Cadeby Main Colliery Hunslet ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST National Coal Board No. 66 – the last standard gauge industrial steam locomotive built for use in Britain.