AN APPEAL to help recreate the 50th anniversary of the first public train on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway has been launched.
Another £40,000 is needed to complete the overhaul of Ivatt 2-6-2T No. 41241 so that it will be ready for the line’s eight-day Golden Jubilee celebrations from June 24-July 1.
As reported in our last issue, the contract overhaul of the boiler of No. 41241 has been completed at the Severn Valley Railway’s Bridgnorth Works, paving the way for the locomotive to reprise its place on the opening train half a century ago.
Enjoy more Heritage Railway reading in the four-weekly magazine.
Click here to subscribe & save.
It was at 2.35pm on Saturday, June 29, 1968, that No. 41241 and USA tank No. 72 doubleheaded the reopening special out of Keighley before running non-stop to Oxenhope.
It is planned that No. 41241 will appear in the non-authentic LMS (KWVR) red livery it carried on the day. No. 72, which carried a fictitious ochre livery for the opening train, and is now owned by Andy Booth, is undergoing the latter stages of an overhaul at the Ribble Steam Railway and may also be available for the 50th anniversary programme.
The celebrations will see the return of several other locomotives that were present on the line 50 years ago.
No. 41241 arrived on the KWVR in March 1967. Historically appropriate for the Worth Valley branch, it was representative of a type that ran over it until June 1960 when they were replaced by diesel railcars. Indeed, it possibly represents the most typical branch-line engine of all KWVR stock.
Read more in Issue 238 of HR – on sale now!
Advert
Enjoy more Heritage Railway reading in the four-weekly magazine. Click here to subscribe.
