Williton workshop to return Barclay Victory to action
ANDREW Barclay 0-4-0ST Victory (2201/1945) is to be returned to steam by the team at West Somerset Restoration, based at Williton on the West Somerset Railway. The former Stewart & Lloyds (Newport) locomotive arrived from the Avon Valley Railway on September 27, having been reassembled for the second time this year; it moved to Bitton from the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway back in March. The contract restoration will be led by WSR’s head of mechanical engineering, Ryan Pope, owner of Barclay 0-4-0ST Caledonia Works (1219/1911). Victory has not run since the early 2000s. However, since then it has ‘lost’ its old boiler to ex-Mountain Ash Barclay 0-6-0ST Llantarnam Abbey (2074/1939), which in turn gave its boiler to Victory. This boiler has not been steamed since the 1970s and is understood to require a considerable amount of work. Ironically, Llantarnam Abbey’s bottom end is also undergoing overhaul in the Williton workshops on behalf of the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway. It is one of three Andrew Barclay-built locos currently receiving the benefit of Mr Pope’s expertise, the others being Victory and 0-4-0ST Tom Parry (2015/1935); the latter being a cosmetic project only.