The second visiting locomotive has been announced for the North Norfolk's 2024 running season, which will commence in full on March 29, and will comprise three steam trains which will operate across the Easter weekend.
The steam locomotive set to visit the Poppy Line is an Austerity saddle tank 0-6-0 No.22, which is normally based at the Appleby-Frodingham Railway at the British Steel Works in Scunthorpe.
The loco is expected to stay at the Norfolk railway for the whole of the 2024 season, running alongside the railway's own locomotive fleet, and is due to arrive later this week.
The Hunslet Engine co. built No.22 in 1956, to the design used to supply engines to the Ministry of Defence in the second world war, which is what gave them the name of “Austerity”, they were cheap to build easy to operate and could handle heavy goods trains.
No.22 started its life after the war and because of the powerful nature of the class, it was built to haul and shunt NCB (National Coal Board) trains around collieries.
It was withdrawn from the NCB in 1978 before being purchased nineteen years later by the Appleby-Frodingham Railway Preservation Society.
A long heavy restoration started before No.22 returned to steam in 2010 in the United Steel Companies Maroon livery.
Earlier this week it was announced that BR 9F No. 92203 ‘Black Prince' had been withdrawn from traffic near the end of its 10 year boiler ticket
The North Norfolk Railway runs for 5½ miles between the Victorian town of Sheringham to the Georgian town of Holt with an intermediate station at Weybourne.
The line welcomes 165,000 people per year and offers a real taste of what rural railways were like in Norfolk before closure of the majority of the M&GN railway system in the mid to late 1950s.
“Steam locomotives are subject to strict maintenance and safety checks, the most rigorous of which is the ‘ten-year boiler inspection'. During this process a locomotive is dismantled for a thorough check and overhaul; in essence it is akin to an exhaustive MOT and service – but the work required usually takes a few years! Two of our locomotives have recently reached the end of their ten-year boiler “tickets” and our Engineering team have therefore arranged to hire replacements to cover. We are pleased to have secured No 22; she is a deceptively powerful industrial engine which once worked at collieries in South Wales, and she provides a real contrast with our other locomotives. We're sure our fleet will continue to delight visitors with a range of contrasting engines for them to see and travel behind.
“We would like to thank the owners of No. 22 and look forward to welcoming her to the Poppy Line very soon and expect her to enter service with us during the Easter holidays.”
Interim General Manager, Graham Hukins
The North Norfolk railway is run by teams of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers and is supported by The Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway Society – a registered charity.
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