Tank PRaiSed and TankaRdS RaiSed aS VolunTeeRS Seal a deal

Whitwell & Reepham Railway volunteers won 50 pints of beer from their safety manager in a wager involving a Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns 0-4-0ST.

Richard Bailey commissioned the five-strong ‘Thursday Gang’ to build a new saddle tank for Agecroft No. 3, and promised them the drinks in return – with one pint to be deducted for every leak “or even slight weep” in the tank.

But despite its riveted construction, the tank was entirely watertight – and the team got their ten pints each. “It made me cry,” commented Mr Bailey, “but I was really pleased with them.”

The locomotive (Works No. 7681) was originally to be restored as a static exhibit, until the ‘Thursday Gang’ took on the job of returning it to working order. Its boiler returned from overhaul at the North Norfolk Railway two months ago, and it is now being reassembled.

It had been hoped to complete it in 2019, but Mike Urry – the owner of Whitwell & Reepham station – said that the aim is now for it to return to steam in February next year, the 11th anniversary of the station’s 2009 reopening.

This will give the railway two working steam locomotives, the other being Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST Works No. 2199 Victory, which has three years remaining on its boiler certificate. A second Barclay 0-4-0ST, Works No. 945 Annie, is under overhaul.

Built in 1951, the RSH was originally delivered to Bolton Power Station as its No. 1 – but transferred to Agecroft Power Station in September 1954, because, it is believed, it proved to be out of gauge for the Bolton site.