WEST Somerset Railway is set to welcome a visit from an overhauled express steam locomotive train.
'Nunney Castle' has been added to the line-up of “guest engines” that will feature in the West Somerset Railway’s Autumn Steam Gala which will take place between October 17 and 19.
The visit will be Nunney Castle’s first visit to a preserved railway since returning to traffic earlier this year following a decade-long overhaul.
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Built at Swindon in 1934, number 5029 Nunney Castle was one of a class of locos that headed express trains on the Great Western Railway and the Western Region of British Railways until displaced by diesel hydraulic locomotives in the 1960’s.
Named after a Somerset castle near Frome it spent much of its life based at Old Oak Common in West London before moving to Newton Abbot and Plymouth Laira in the late 1950’s. Throughout that part of its life it would have been a regular sight at Bath and Bristol and in Somerset and Devon.
The locomotive was a staple of mainline operations until early 2015 when the engine was withdrawn for a comprehensive overhaul.
It is visiting West Somerset courtesy of Locomotive Services Ltd and will be in the colours of the GWR.
When passing though Newton Abbot or Totnes it would have passed a small tank engine. Also built at Swindon, in 1936 number 4866 (now number 1466 after being renumbered in 1946) was designed to work on the most lightly used GWR branch lines such as the Totnes- Ashburton, the Exe Valley lines serving Tiverton, Bampton and Dulverton, and Yatton to Clevedon.
Number 1466 spent nearly all its time based at Newton Abbot until just before its withdrawal it moved to Taunton.
There it had no practical use and spent most of its time cold in the yard until official withdrawal. Fortunately it was the scrapyard and became a founding part of the Great Western Society’s collection at Didcot in Oxfordshire.
Number 1466 had not steamed since 2000 until earlier this year. It left Didcot and returned to Somerset where its restoration to working order was completed in the workshops at Williton.
Safely back home at the GWS base it was publicly relaunched as a working engine on August 23rd with members of the Williton Restoration team present.
West Somerset Railway General Manager Kerry Noble said: “The West Somerset has had a good working relationship with the Great Western Society for many years and this year we have welcomed their recreated 'Saint' 2999 'Lady of Legend' as a guest addition to our fleet.
"The team at Williton have completed a number of restorations and overhauls in recent times and are working on a locomotives for the West Somerset Railway Association which we hope to see working in the not too distant future.
"This is Great Western 'Small Prairie' 4561 a surviving member of a class of engine once familiar on the branch lines from Taunton to Barnstaple, Chard, Minehead and Yeovil."
Tickets are now available and West Somerset Railway suggest booking in advance in order to not miss out.
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