VISITING LOCOMOTIVES​

• We are pleased to announce visiting locomotives at this year’s 40th Anniversary Steam Gala!

• Keighley Gas Works No 2 courtesy of our friends at the Tanfield Railway.

• Making a very welcome return to our line is London and North Western Railway ‘Coal Tank’ No.1054.

• The locomotive previously visited us for our 2013 steam gala, when we recreated the final train to operate on the Heads of The Valleys Line between Abergavenny and Merthyr Tydfil on 5th January 1958.

• No.1054 entered service 135 years ago in 1888. It is believed to have worked originally in the Birmingham area before later operating in both North and South Wales. The locomotive was first withdrawn from service in 1939. However, it was quickly overhauled and re-instated to traffic in December 1940 as a result of the shortage of locomotives required for the war effort.

• 1054 then accumulated many miles in service in both England and Wales before moving to Abergavenny. From here it was loaned to the National Coal Board for 12 months, working alongside two of its classmates at Windsor Colliery in Ynysybwl near Pontypridd. It then again returned to Abergavenny as the last survivor of its type and, incidentally, the last Webb-designed locomotive in operation.

• It was finally withdrawn for scrap in 1958, having covered over one million miles in its 70 years of service. The locomotive was subsequently saved, and following overhaul and restoration, it is now based at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway in Yorkshire.

• We would like to give our thanks to the Bahamas Locomotive Society for allowing the only operational LNWR locomotive to return back to South Wales for this special event.

• 1054 Photo by Peter Brabham

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