Severn Valley Railway legend back on track after revamp
The oldest locomotive at Severn Valley Railway has had its first trip following a six-year overhaul.
Number 813 is 116-years-old and is the oldest of the railway's operational fleet.
Following a successful steam test the locomotive started running again.
Former Port Talbot Railway saddle-tank number 813 will undergo further testing in the coming months, with a return to service scheduled for the Season Finale Gala from November 4 to 6.
Assistant Station Manager Tom Ferris said: "It was a good moment. We all felt something special was stirring to see the number 813 moving under her own steam after her overhaul."
What was later to become GWR 813 was completed by Hudswell Clarke in June 1901 at a cost of £2,189.
Apart from the Severn Valley Railway, the locomotive visited 26 different railways and centres between its return to service in 2000 and withdrawal from service for overhaul and heavy boiler repairs in 2009.
It is estimated that the total cost of the overhaul project will exceed £170,000, double the initial budget.
Lewis Maddox, spokesman for Severn Valley Railway said: "It's always fantastic to get an old engine back on the railway, especially when it's 116 years old.
"We look forward to seeing it steaming in November."
The locomotive is owned by the GWR 813 preservation fund, which is a voluntary organisation founded in 1966 to acquire, restore and preserve in working order ex-Great Western Railway locomotive 813, one of the last survivors of the many tank locomotives absorbed into the GWR in the first quarter of the 20th century from formerly independent railways in South Wales.
The locomotive was purchased from the National Coal Board in 1967 and moved in the same year from Backworth Colliery, Northumberland, to the Severn Valley Railway where the lengthy task of restoration commenced.
