Bressingham trials for WD Austerity

by

HUNSLET Austerity 0-6-0ST No. 3193 of 1944 Norfolk Regiment has been moved by road transport from boilermaker Mervyn Mayes’s premises at the Old Goods Yard, Yaxham to Bressingham Steam Museum for trials.

No. 3193, which was built for the War Department where it was numbered WD140, later 75142, was rebuilt by Hunslet in 1962 as No. 3887.

Bought for preservation by Phil Wainwright, it later went to the Great Central Railway and then the Midland Railway-Butterley.

Article continues below…
Advert

Enjoy more Heritage Railway reading in the four-weekly magazine.
Click here to subscribe & save.
Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST No. 3193 Norfolk Regiment being loaded onto the Reid Freight Services Ltd trailer on November 28. NHSR

From 1995 until 2003 it was the principal workhorse of the Lavender Line, but eventually required extensive work on its boiler, firebox and bunker.

It had been at the Yaxham premises next to the Mid-Norfolk Railway since it was purchased by registered charity Norfolk Heritage Steam Railway Ltd from the Lavender Line in 2009.

Following more detail work, extra checks as well as work specified by the boiler inspector during his last visit
to Yaxham, the locomotive will then be tested and trialled over the several hundred yards of standard gauge track available at Bressingham, where the NHSR intends to use the covered facilities and inspection pit on site.

Article continues below…
Advert

The paintwork will be completed there to replicate that carried by No. 3193 when active at the Cairnryan Military Railway near Stranraer in 1952.

NHSR has already received a number of expressions of interest from heritage railways for 2018 which are being carefully considered by its directors.

It is expected that No. 3193 will enter revenue earning service during the early months of 2018.

Article continues below…
Advert

Read more News and Features in Issue 236 of HR – on sale now!


Advert
Subscribe to Heritage Railway Magazine Enjoy more Heritage Railway reading in the four-weekly magazine. Click here to subscribe.

Article Tags:

About the Author