Hunslet 0-6-0 Austerity saddle tank to join Mid Norfolk Railway for 2022

Mid Norfolk Railway has announced that United Steel Company Limited No 22, a Hunslet 0-6-0 Austerity saddle tank, will join its fleet for the 2022 running season.

The Austerity will spend the season working in rotation with Mid Norfolk Railway's long-time resident BR Standard Class 4 2-6-4 tank engine 80078 on the railway's steam days.

It was built in 1956 for the National Coal Board by the Hunslet Engine Company, using a design first used by the War Office in World War Two, and therefore considered to be an Austerity-type locomotive.

It began its working life at the Graig Merthyr Colliery in South Wales, where it was used until June 1978, when the colliery closed.

At the colliery, it worked between the Graig Merthyr Colliery and the exchange sidings on the Swansea District line at Graig Merthyr Colliery Sidings.

Following the closure of the colliery, the locomotive remained in the Graig Merthyr engine shed until 1986, when it was moved to the Cefn Coed Colliery Museum at Crynant near Neath, to act as the Gate Guardian.

In 1997, the locomotive was purchased by Chris Theaker to become part of the Appleby-Frodingham Railway Preservation Society and moved to the former British Steel site at Scunthorpe for restoration. It returned to steam in 2010.

During restoration, the engine was painted in a crimson livery and given its current identity of United Steel Company Limited No 22. It has previously visited the Rutland Railway Museum at Cottesmore, which is on a former iron ore line where the original No.22 worked, the Nene Valley Railway, the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Railway, and the Great Central Railway.

Commenting on the season-long loan, Mr Theaker said: “I am please we could come to an agreement with the Mid Norfolk Railway, that will see the engine in service on another heritage railway and the revenue earned will contribute to the Society's ongoing restoration projects”.