Marcia to visit Mid-Suffolk Light Railway until spring
THE Mid-Suffolk Railway is receiving Peckett 0-4-0T Marcia (1631/1923) on loan from the Kent & East Sussex Railway. Due to arrive on November 18, the locomotive will be used on selected weekends until January 1, alongside the railway’s existing fleet. Weighing only 12 tons and with a wheel diameter of only 2ft 3in, Marcia is one of the smallest standard gauge steam locos in the country, and is certainly the smallest locomotive ever operated by the ‘Middy’. It is expected to return to the KESR in the spring. Of the railway’s home fleet, Cockerill 0-4-0VBT (2525/1906) and Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST Wissington (1700/1938), which is on long term loan from the North Norfolk Railway, are both due to share duties with Marcia. Readers wishing to know when Marcia will be operating are advised to check on the railway’s website www.mslr.org.uk In the workshops at Brockford, 1928-built Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST No. 1604 and very much a contemporary of Wissington, is approaching the end of an extensive rebuild. The repaired boiler is due to return from a Norfolk contractor for trial fitting before Christmas and then to go back there for tubing, hydraulic testing and finally steam testing in the New Year. Once that has been completed, the boiler will be fitted and the loco fully reassembled. When completed, the locomotive will become ‘Mid Suffolk Railway No. 4’, the next in the number series adopted by the original company as it closely resembles an earlier locomotive which worked there. Bagnall 0-4-0ST Nick (2565/1936) is now out of ticket and is reported to be for sale.