ECCLESBOURNE VALLEY RAILWAY TO HOST ‘LANKY’ AND ‘2MT’ IN 2019
Two ex-BR locomotives will grace the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway in 2019: Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway ‘A’ 0-6-0 No. 52322, and BR ‘2MT’ 2-6-0 No. 78018.
The former is due to run on selected dates between April 19 and June 16, while the Riddles ‘Mogul’ will be in steam on dates between June 15 and September 8.
The opportunity will be taken to run the pair at a ‘Steam in the Valley Weekend’ on June 15/16 – the first time the EVR has operated two ex-BR locomotives. The line’s two Andrew Barclay 0-4-0STs, Ferrybridge No. 3 and ‘Henry Ellison’, will also be in action at this event, working the 1-in-27 Ravenstor incline.
It will be the first appearance on the EVR by No. 78018, although Loughborough-based classmate No. 78019 hauled the line’s inaugural trains to Duffield in 2011. The Aspinall Class ‘27’ 0-6-0 is making a return visit, having been the first ex-LMS tender engine on the branch in preservation, in 2013.
Work continues on the overhaul of two larger industrial locomotives suitable for the 8½-mile run to Duffield – Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T No. S102 Cathryn and Bagnall ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST Works No. 2746
‘The Duke’.
On the former, the lubrication system is almost complete and vacuum brakes are being fitted to allow it to haul passenger trains; while the latter’s bunker has been refitted and a “thick layer of scale” cleaned from the bottom of its saddle tank. Joint owner Tim Oaks commented: “We asked engineer Alen Grice [who served on the Longmoor Military Railway] what the Army would have done and he said: ‘Buy another tank!’”