Providing Rail news since 1897 -

And a good news story – one that escaped ‘Death Row’

The Ashford-built loco was then set aside for possible inclusion in the National Collection, but the cost of restoring it to original 1896 condition (it had been rebuilt in 1908) proved prohibitive and it was condemned for scrap in 1962.

A private individual, Esmond Lewis-Evans, had, however, decided to purchase it for preservation.

Only one other member of the public had succeeded in buying an engine from BR at that time (Capt Bill Smith with ex-GNR 0-6-0ST No. 1247) and the paperwork took so long that by the time it was completed, in August 1962, the O1 is said to have been standing at a yard exit signal waiting to be towed for scrap when a breathless Mr Lewis-Evans arrived bearing sale documents on which the signatures were barely dry!

He thus snatched the loco from ‘death row’ at the 11th hour.

No. 31065 was initially steamed at the Ashford Steam Centre but when that closed in the early 1980s, the engine disappeared off the preservationists’ map for 10 years and there were fears that it might have been cut up after all.

Happily, it was discovered stored in a Cambridgeshire farmyard in the 1990s and later went to the Bluebell Railway for restoration.

ERNEST NIXON,
Newark, Notts