ELSECAR Heritage Railway has become home to a Victorian steam locomotive.
Hastings, built by Hunslet in Leeds in 1888, is a small six wheel tank engine which emerged from the dynamite of the Industrial Revolution to join T A Walker, the company which built the Manchester Ship Canal network.
In this period, the locomotive carried the name Liverpool.
Oliver Edwards, Elsecar Heritage Railway marketing manager, said it was sold in 1898 to contractors Price, Wills and Reeves, renamed Hastings and sent south for use in the construction of the Bexhill West railway branch line. In 1900 it was used at Immingham Docks to shunt dock construction trains.
Hastings then passed into the ownership of Park Gate Iron and Steel Company in 1915 and was used at its Rotherham plant until June 1935. The company transferred the loco to its Sproxton Quarry in Lincolnshire where it worked until withdrawn from service in 1957.
In 1963 with the closure of the quarry railway, Hastings was acquired for preservation by the Kent and East Sussex Railway where it was only steamed a few times at reduced pressure boiler because of its poor boiler conditions.
It was subsequently sold to a private owner who made good progress with its restoration before being sold on to another owner in 2002 and transferred to Mangapps Farm Railway Museum where further significant work was undertaken.
The part restored engine was acquired by Mike Hart, a member of Elsecar Heritage Railway and owner of Elsecar-based steam locomotives Gervase and William, in November 2017 for return to working order.
The majority of the work on the locomotive will be carried out at Elsecar Heritage Railway.
Oliver said: “Steam locomotives are rare breeds, and so Hastings will need specialist work to run again. “With this in mind, our friends at North Norfolk Railway Engineering will build a new firebox for the engine.
“Hastings will be an amazing part of Britain’s industrial past to have based at Elsecar and, when complete, will be seen regularly on normal running days and footplate courses and at special events.”
