The 563 Locomotive Group has announced the next stage in its project to return London & South Western Railway T9 Class 4-4-0 steam locomotive No. 120 to steam.
The Group has made an agreement with the National Railway Museum which will enable it to press ahead with the overhaul of the loco.
The work will be carried out at two sites: the Swanage Railway’s Herston Works in Dorset, and the Flour Mill at Bream in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.
This announcement comes six months after the last update on the progress of the project, which revealed that the Group had submitted a detailed plan for the locomotive’s overhaul to the National Railway Museum.
The Group aims to have No.120 back in steam in time for 2029, the 130th anniversary of its original construction.
The loco, which was designed by Dugald Drummond, was built at Nine Elms in 1899. More than sixty years later, it was withdrawn from operation in 1963.
The restoration work on the locomotive will involve:
- a complete overhaul of the engine, which will include replacing the cylinder block that had previously been repaired
- overhauling the boiler
- fully refurbishing the tender, which is the only surviving LSWR watercart tender.
The first of these will be carried out at Herston Works, the Swanage Railway’s main restoration and maintenance facility, and the other two at the Flour Mill.
The Group estimates that the restoration project will cost around £750,000. It has already raised around half of this figure from donations and a substantial bequest.
This has enabled the work to start immediately, but leaves the Group still needing to raise the rest of the money.
The 563 Locomotive Group aims to bring locomotives No. 120 and No. 563 together in steam for the first time in preservation.
In October 2023, after restoration work by Swanage Railway volunteers, Adams T3 Class 4-4-0 No. 563 hauled its first two passenger trains since 1945.
More information about Project 120 is available on the project’s website, which has recently been improved.
Responses
I had T9s including this 30120 on my old Exmth jct shed (72A)! Inner motion I would call mincing machines that I would squeeze up into! And a lot of older engines meant throwing clinker from the bars out the cab door, And I cant see the smaller Adams very well, But I had Adams 02 branch line engines on the South coast like 30583 etc, but so long ago for my memory? But as late as 1960 / 61? But I might be wrong, It was a long time ago? The T9 will no doubt meet my old Maunsell 31874 on Swanage? Blimey, that was over 65 year ago!