41313

Built at Crewe in 1952 41313 entered service at Brighton in and after a month was reallocated to Exmouth Junction shed in May 1952, displacing aged Drummond M7 0-4-4T engines on local passenger work in the Exeter area, especially on the Sidmouth and Exmouth branches. Along with other members of the class it was also tried on banking duties between St Davids and Central Stations. 41313 piloted West Country 34036 on an Exeter Central to Okehampton train, becoming the first 2-6-2T to be used on the Bude branch from Halwill Junction. Soon after this it shared with 41315 the privilege being the first 2-6-2T’s on the Bere Alston to Callington branch near Plymouth. For nearly 3 years 41313 continued to work from Exmouth Junction.

In February 1955 it moved to Three Bridges shed in West Sussex before it transfer to Faversham, Kent in June 1955 where it stayed for four years until the depot closed to steam in 1959. In 1957 whilst at Faversham 41313 was tested for empty stock train working between Clapham Junction and Waterloo. Again the 2-6-2T was successful and it heralded the end of the Drummond 0-4-4T’s on these duties.

In November 1959 the engine was taken to Eastleigh Works for a general repair and when repainted went West again, this time to Barnstaple, where it joined 41298. Duties were light passenger and goods trains. The duties it had first sampled in 1955, to Torrington and Halwill, became its regular activity. As it was still at Barnstaple at the end of 1962 it was transferred to Western Region stock when all the lines west of Salisbury fell under Swindon and Paddington.

Three months later at the beginning of 1963, 41313 returned to the Southern Region at Brighton where work included passenger turns to Horsham and Guildford, shunting, parcels trains, and the ‘Lancing Belle’ workman’s train to Lancing Carriage Works. Two visits to Eastleigh works for intermediate repairs were made, one in 1962 when it came up from Barnstaple, and the other in 1963, after it had transferred to Brighton. In June 1964 it was sent to its final BR home, Eastleigh and then spent more than a year on local passenger and van trains in the district, and some freight duties including the petrol tank car trains on the Fawley branch. By June 1965 diesel power was ousting steam in the area and 41313 was laid aside, officially withdrawn in November 1965.

It was then sold to Woodham Brothers scrap merchants in 1966, 41313 was towed to their yard at Barry Docks, South Wales, where it was to stay until purchase by the Ivatt Trust in 1975.

41313 was moved to the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, Quainton Road, as it was initially intended that 41313 would act as a source of spare parts for class mate 41298 and provide a change of boiler for 46447, which were also owned by the trust. It was then decided that the engine should be restored to working order, the trustees choosing the Isle of Wight Steam Railway as a suitable location for their three Ivatt locomotives’ future operation. 41313 was moved to Havenstreet in 2006 where some conservation work was carried out before it was placed in store pending overhaul.

In 2014 it was announced that 41313 would be overhauled on a commercial basis at the Cranmore workshops of the East Somerset Railway with an estimated completion timescale of two years.

The Ivatt Trust came to a long-term agreement with the Isle of Wight Steam Railway (IOWSR), that will see 41313 and class mate 41298 restored for use on the Isle of Wight. So, some forty years after an initial plan to introduce BR Standard Class 2MT locomotives to the island

In 2014 with the successful launch into service of 46447 at the East Somerset Railway (ESR); an agreement was drawn up between the ESR and the IOSWSR for 41313 to be restored at the Cranmore workshops of the ESR on a commercial basis. A target of 2017 has been set for No. 41313 to be in steam.

41313 was moved to Cranmore in 2015 for the restoration work to begin. Steady progress has been made and during 2016 the locomotive was back on all its wheels and the bunker and fireman’s side tank were refurbished and refitted.

It was expected that the contract to restore the locomotive which is being undertaken at the East Somerset Railway would be completed by February but this has now been put back to May or June 2017. The delay resulted from two contractors not carrying out the tapping of the holes for the superheater flue tubes as expected. A third contractor ( Riley & Son (E) Ltd) was then engaged to do the job which allowed the re-tubing of the boiler to go ahead.

Following hydraulic testing of the boiler a fire was lit in the locomotive in March 2017 for the first time since 1965. Having passed its official insurance hydraulic and steam tests out of the frames in April 2017 the boiler was lifted back onto the frames.

In June 2017 41313 was returned to steam on the East Somerset Railway

It then ran on the East Somerset Railway, as part of the restoration contract, until September 2017.

The locomotive was moved to the Isle of Wight in October 2017 and entered service in May 2018.