Victor and Vulcan to reunite on Tyneside in May

THE two surviving ‘hi-tech’ Steel Company of Wales (SCOW) Bagnall 0-6-0STs – Nos. 401 and 403 – will be reunited for the first time since the mid-1980s at the North Tyneside Steam Railway (NTSR) on May 8-10.

The pair – W/Nos. 2994 and 2996 – were built in 1951 as part of a trio of ‘New Standard

18’ locomotives for SCOW’s Abbey, Margam and Port Talbot steelworks. They featured such refinements as Walschaerts valve gear, piston valves, roller bearings, hopper ashpans and rocking grates, self-cleaning smokeboxes, and balanced reversing gear.

Over the next six years they were evaluated alongside Bagnall-built diesels, which eventually succeeded them, and Nos. 401 and 403 were sold to the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge.

They were named Vulcan and Victor respectively, and served the Birmingham car maker until 1973 when they were acquired by the fledgling West Somerset Railway.

Miners’ leader

The two Bagnalls became key members of the WSR operating fleet, losing their original full-length bufferbeams and receiving vacuum brakes.

However, they were eventually replaced by ex-main line locomotives, and in 1986 Vulcan was sold to the Stephenson Railway Museum, and named after miners’ leader and Northumberland MP, Thomas Burt.

Victor remained in Somerset for a further two years, and after spells at the Strathspey Railway, Battlefield Line and Great Central Railway (Nottingham), it was bought in 2009 by the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway.

Both locos have undergone major overhauls in recent years, No.401( Vulcan) returning to service last year, and have not met since their days at Minehead. The reunion is therefore highly anticipated in industrial circles.

During the three-day gala the duo will work a mixture of passenger and freight services between 10.00 and 17.00 each day.

Timetables have yet to be confirmed, and more details will be released nearer the time.