The Didcot Railway Centre has announced that the country’s oldest working standard gauge steam locomotive, Furness No. 20, will be operating at the centre for its Easter weekend, and will be in steam for nine days in total.

The centre plans to run Furness No. 20 alongside its own restored GWR locomotive, Trojan which is over 100 years old and is the oldest working GWR loco. With the centre’s vintage coaches, it is hoping for a Victorian-styled weekend.

Number 20 is an 0-4-0 tender locomotive that was built by Sharp, Stewart & Co. in 1863 to order 440. It was one of a batch of eight locomotives constructed for the Furness Railway and is currently based at Shildon.

During the 1860s, traffic on the Furness Railway experienced rapid growth, and as these locomotives were small with just four wheels they soon became obsolescent.

In 1870, the first six of the class, numbers 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, and 26 were sold to the Barrow Heamatite Steel Co at Barrow-in-Furness where they were converted into saddle tanks. Number 20 continued working at the steelworks until diesel locomotives were introduced in 1960 when it had completed over 90 years of work, just short of its centenary.

Number 20 continued in traffic until 1960 when diesel locomotives were introduced. It completed over 90 years of work at the steelworks, just short of its centenary.

After being withdrawn from service at the steelworks, the two remaining former Furness Railways machines weren’t scrapped but were presented to local schools, with Number 20, which had been renumbered as Barrow Heamatite Steel Co No. 7, presented to the George Hastwell Special School in Abbey Road, Barrow.

Number 20 was purchased privately in 1983 and moved to the Steamtown Railway Museum at Carnforth in Lancashire. A grant of £97,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund together with contributions from other groups allowed the Furness Railway Trust to make significant progress with overhauling the locomotive.

On 18th December 1996, the stripped-down frames and motion of No. 20 were delivered to workshops of Marconi Marine (V.S.E.L.) the Barrow-in-Furness where it underwent a total rebuild, including the construction of a new boiler and tender. Two years later, on 17th December 1998, the locomotive emerged resplendent in the Furness Railway’s Indian Red livery.