STEPHEN Middleton’s Nidd Valley Railway sole survivor Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST No. 1208 of 1916 Illingworth/Mitchell has officially completed its 22-year restoration with a naming ceremony.
Based on the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway, the locomotive’s name honours the former Lord Mayor of Bradford and local architect William Illingworth, who designed the city’s Odeon cinema and worked on the 1936 Scar House Dam project – the largest in the world at the time.
The July 6 ceremony at Embsay station featured a royal ride in Queen Victoria’s LSWR saloon No. 17, pulled by Illingworth. The carriage also featured in Channel 4’s Great Rail Restorations (see separate story on page 27).
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Tim Illingworth, great grandson of William Illingworth and director of Leeds-based integrated creative agency Pure, said: “Over the years, we have been inspired by my great grandfather’s achievements.
“The train was originally named after him during the construction of Scar House Reservoir and the original nameplates were presented to him when the train was decommissioned.
“The plates have been passed down through the generations and now sit proudly on the outside of my house. It’s fantastic to see the train that was left for scrap up and running once again.”
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