75069 ENTERS SERVICE AFTER ‘£900K’ REBUILD
BR 4-6-0 returns at Severn Valley after almost 25 years out of action.
Standard ‘4MT’ No. 75069 is back in revenue-earning service at the Severn Valley Railway after an overhaul estimated to have cost around £900,000.
The BR 4-6-0 was relaunched into traffic on February 16, with members of its owning group on board the train including Master Neverers Association members David Williams, Tony Bending and Mick York. The locomotive remained in operation throughout the weekend and was also rostered for duty on February 23/24.
It has been out of action for almost a quarter of a century since it failed with firebox problems during a visit to the West Somerset Railway in 1994 – and its latest overhaul, including heavy boiler repairs, was reported on BBC News to have cost “more than £900,000, with staff spending more than 25,000 hours on the project.”
SVR Engineering Services Manager Neil Taylor confirmed: “It was standing at £830,000 until we painted it, so including that and the value of volunteer labour, £900,000 is probably about right.”
The former Southern Region engine now carries authentic BR lined black paintwork for the first time in preservation; when restored in 1984, it was finished in the lined green guise that was applied to many Western Region-allocated ‘4MTs’, but never to the Southern examples. This choice was made, explains David Williams, because: “At that time it was a very black locomotive fleet with 43106 and 46443 in service.”
The SVR has now added
No. 75069 to the line-up for its Spring Steam Gala on March 15-17 (see story below).