L&Y ‘Pug’ returns to steam after 52 years
LANCASHIRE & Yorkshire Railway ‘Pug’ 0‑4‑0ST No. 19 returned to steam for the first time in over 50 years at the East Lancashire Railway on April 15.
Restoration of the 1910‑built class ‘21’ locomotive – which has reverted from its recent pseudo‑BR identity as No. 51241 – was rapid, taking a mere 504 days. The ‘Pug’ has received a new saddle tank and chimney, a new ashpan, new front tool lockers, and extensive replacement pipework – as only four pieces of original pipework were salvageable – while “the only major boiler work done was a new small patch welded into the doorplate under the firehole and some new foundation ring rivets,” said project leader Callum Porter.
“We are now looking at fitting the new vacuum brake system and then it will go onto final painting, and we’ll have a working LYR ‘Pug’ for the first time since 2005,” he added.
Withdrawn from LMS service in 1931 and sold into industry, the Aspinall‑ designed 0‑4‑0ST – classmate to fellow surviving ‘21’ No. 51218 – was saved for preservation in 1967 by a London Railway Preservation Society member, before transferring to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Trust in 1969. After a solitary steaming at Steamport Southport in 1970, No. 19 moved to the Ribble Steam
Railway in 1998 upon Southport’s closure, remaining on static display until January 2020, when it moved to the ELR.
Porter added: “It’s been a real privilege to project‑manage this overhaul; it shows the quality and speed with which we can turn engines around. We have a really great team and are keen to waste no time throwing ourselves into the next job (47324). I can’t thank the LYR Trust enough for giving us the opportunity to bring this wonderful locomotive back life again.”
Four of the seven surviving LYR locomotives are operational for the centenary of the company’s merger with the LNWR, in addition to ‘25’ No. 52044, No. 51456 and ‘27’ No. 52322.