Veteran A No. 5 bows out at North Tyneside Railway

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AGE finally caught up with the Stephenson Railway Museum’s (SRM) Kitson 0-6-0T A No. 5 (2509/1883) on July 6 when the veteran Consett Iron Company ‘long boiler’ loco was withdrawn for the foreseeable future.

The locomotive is the only operational example of Robert Stephenson’s innovative ‘long boiler’ design, and returned to operation condition in 2013 at the North Tyneside Steam Railway/Stephenson Railway Museum.

Kitson 0-6-0T A No. 5 and ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST No. 71515 head away from Marley Hill with a coal train for Sunniside during the Tanfield Railway’s Legends of Industry gala on June 20, 2015. DAVE HEWITT

At the time of its return to service it was known it would need to be treated with due reverence, and subsequently it was used sparingly in favour of Peckett ‘OX1’ 0-6-0ST Ashington No. 5 (1970/1939), although it did cover for the Peckett during a 2016 retube, and also visited the Tanfield Railway in 2015.

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“She was on borrowed time, I think, and working at a reduced boiler pressure, but at least she came back out into traffic between 2013 and 2018,” said the museum’s engineer Robin Gibson.

Read more in the August issue of The RM – on sale now!


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