L&Y SADDLE TANK OUTSHOPPED WITH ‘1968’ NUMBER
LYR 0-6-0ST No. 752 has emerged from overhaul at the East Lancashire Railway – wearing fictional BR livery with the number 51456.
The makeover shows how the locomotive would have appeared had it survived into British Railways ownership; in fact, as LMS No. 11456, it was sold into colliery service in 1937. It retained the LMS number throughout its subsequent career with the National Coal Board.
However, the engine did once temporarily carry the number 51456 in steam days – in 1968, when it was towed by rail from its last workplace of Parsonage Colliery near Leigh to its first preservation base of Yates Duxbury paper mill at Heap Bridge near Bury. During the final leg of this journey from Bolton, it was hauled by now-preserved ‘8F’ 2-8-0 No. 48773.
The BR guise also recreates scenes from local railway history, as several members of the Aspinall Class ‘23’ were allocated to Bury shed in the 1950s, and it may later be renumbered to replicate one of these examples.
However, it is intended that it will revert to authentic LYR livery at a later date, and LMS guise – or even the green and red paintwork that it carried during industrial use – could also be reapplied.
Having passed its official steam test in December (SR501), the locomotive underwent initial trials around Bury yard. Ironically, one movement involved shunting a failed Class 08 diesel built at the former LYR Horwich Works.
It made its first forays onto the Bury-Rawtenstall line for runningin on January 22, venturing as far as the first station at Summerseat, and hauled its first trains three days later, piloting converted ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0 No. 2890 ‘Douglas’. Dr John Sagar of the LYR Trust said: “She’s as stately as a galleon at 25mph, and the visibility fore and aft is excellent.”
Following a planned launch event for members of its owning Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Trust on February 22, it is due to make its public debut at the ELR’s Spring Steam Gala on March 6-8 (see page 12).
For more, see feature on pages 40-47.