THE Middleton Railway’s Hunslet 0-6-0ST Brookes No. 1 made its post-overhaul passenger debut on August 28, effectively marking the culmination of its Heritage Lottery-funded purchase and overhaul.
The project has taken a little more than four years to complete, starting in April 2013 when the
1941-built loco (W/No. 2387) was dismantled at Moor Road.
Brookes No. 1 had received an all-new boiler back in 1999, giving the overhaul a significant head start as it required little more than a re-tube in order to obtain a new boiler certificate.
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De-tubing was carried out in the summer of 2013, and the boiler completed three years later.
Much of the early stripping of the locomotive was completed outside, but in the summer of 2014 the rolling chassis was taken into the workshops for the wheels to be dropped.
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