Steam test success for Spa Valley’s Lady Ingrid

THE long-awaited return to service of the Spa

Valley Railway’s Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST Lady Ingrid (2315/1951) took a big leap forward on November 5, when the locomotive’s overhauled boiler passed its out-of-frames steam test.

Lady Ingrid last worked on the Kent line in 2008 and has been under overhaul at Tunbridge

Wells West since 2011. By 2018 much of the work on the loco’s bottom end had been completed, with the boiler returning from overhaul the following year. However, the

Covid-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions brought progress to a halt, and it was not until mid-August this year that it finally passed its hydraulic test.

During October, former Braehead Power Station loco’s boiler successfully reached full working pressure for the first time, leading to the boiler inspector’s presence on site on November 5. The subsequent successful outcome paves the way for the boiler’s return to the frames in the near future.