In July of this year, steam locomotive 6880 Betton Grange will operate special services on the West Somerset Railway, a standard gauge heritage railway which runs from Minehead to Bishops Lydeard, near Taunton.
The railway had previously been hoping to host Betton Grange during its bank holiday Spring Steam Spectacular from Friday, 3 May to Monday, 6 May.
Unfortunately, it turned out that Betton Grange was unable to come to the line at that time.
Nevertheless, the railway saw several other visiting locomotives operating services over the long weekend, including Hunslet 0-6-0ST No.1873 ‘Jessie' from Blaenavon's Heritage Railway.
Now the West Somerset Railway has announced that they will be welcoming Betton Grange in July instead. Full details and schedules will be released closer to the time.
Work on building the locomotive has taken a total of 26 years, starting when members of the Llangollen Railway made the decision to build a 6800 class, also known as Grange class, locomotive.
Volunteers deemed it an important project, as none of the original Great Western Railway Grange class locomotives were preserved. All 80 of them were withdrawn from service between 1960 and 1965.
The project, therefore, wanted to fill this void.
Initially, a new cab and frame were built, following which the Vale of Glamorgan Council donated a boiler to the project in 2005.
After receiving an overhaul, in March 2020, the boiler was lifted into frame.
Betton Grange then made her maiden journey under her own power last month.
The successful completion of the Betton Grange was made possible, in part, thanks to funding obtained through galas.
Many of those who have been working on the project were previously involved in restoring the Prairie 5199, a former Great Western Railway locomotive.
We are really excited to be able to welcome 6880 Betton Grange to the railway in July. I am sure the locomotive will prove very popular with our visitors and we look forward to running some special services during the visit.
West Somerset Railway General Manager, Kerry Noble
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