‘Terrier’ locomotive Poplar is now in a class of its own!

PRIMARY schoolchildren will benefit from an educational programme featuring the Terrier Trust’s 150-year-old LBSCR ‘A1X’ 0-6-0T No. 70 Poplar, after the charity was awarded £33,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for The Terrier Poplar Education Project.

The loco’s home, the Kent & East Sussex Railway (KESR), is also a partner in the scheme, which complements the line’s existing programme of school activities.

Resource boxes will be available to schools nationally through schools library services, and are likely to include material relating to historic themes such as commuting in the 1870s and East End hoppicking ‘holidays’ in Kent.

Pupils studying science and geography will look at sources of energy, changing environmental considerations, and the impact of railway development worldwide.

Railway-themed stories, poems, music and drawing will help develop English, music and arts skills.

The trust is the custodian of two ‘Terrier’s – No. 3 Bodiam (originally No. 70 Poplar )and No. 2678 Knowle. The latter is operational but the former is currently under overhaul at the North Norfolk Railway’s Weybourne works.

The frames are now a rolling chassis once more, and attention has turned to the boiler. This was shotblasted on July 1 and work will now start in earnest.

DAVID STAINES Following its recent visits to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway and the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway (RM July 2021), ‘Terrier’ 0-6-0T No. 2678 Knowle arrived at the Spa Valley Railway on July 6. Providing a taste of what is in store for when the overhaul of resident ‘Terrier’ No. 650 Sutton is complete, Knowle passes High Rocks with the 11.15 Eridge-Tunbridge Wells West service during the line’s Summer Steam Up on July 17.