46428

46428 was built at Crewe in December 1948.

BR motive power depot allocations.

Date Arrived	Depot
January 1948	Preston
July 1949	Wigan Lower Ince
September 1950	Preston
March 1951	Wigan Springs Branch
May 1954	Rhyl
September 1954	Wigan Springs Branch
February 1962	Bescot
March 1962	Bushbury
October 1964	Leamington Spa
June 1965	Tyseley
October 1966	Crewe South

Part of the locomotives early life was spent on loan at Heaton Mersey where it was employed local freight turns in place of an ageing LNER class J10 0-6-0.

Whilst based at Wigan from September 1954 46428 appears to have been employed working stopping trains between Wigan and Manchester , Liverpool, Bolton and Rochdale.

When it was based at Bushby it was employed on similar workings in the West Midlands.

It moved to Leamington Spa to take over the duties of ex GWR engines on local goods and parcel trains. It moved to Tyseley whem Leamington Spa shed closed.

It was withdrawn from service at Crewe South in November 1966 and it was stored at Oxley until it departed for Woodham’s scrap yard at Barry where it arrived in September 1967.

In October 1979 the locomotive was purchased by the Strathspey Railway, with the intention of using the boiler as a replacement for the boiler on 46464, who’s fire had been lit with no water in the boiler and it was assumed that it was badly damaged. This proved not to be the case and in May 1988 the Bury Standard 4 Group purchased 46428 and it arrived at the East Lancs Railway in August 1988. The plan being to restore it once the group had completed bringing 80097 back into steam.

The tender was not purchased by the Strathspey Railway but was bought by the group restoring Standard 2 2-6-0 78018 at Darlington. The frames of the tender have been restored and a new BR3 tender tank has been made for it.

Transporting the locomotive from Scotland was a challenge as the Bury Standard 4 Group was short of funds. A member of the group found a trailer which would hold the locomotive. The owner had a customer in Aberdeen who was waiting to buy the trailer. A deal was done, some members would take the trailer to Aviemore allowing the purchaser to inspect it. A lorry was then hired for the return trip and a qualified lorry driver in the group drove it back to Bury with the locomotive aboard. The only other things for members of the group to do was build loading and unloading ramps at either end of the trip.

The first jobs done on 46428 were to remove all the boiler tubes and burn out all the bolts attaching the smokebox to the saddle. Many new parts and components have been made or purchased over the years for this engine and a start will be made on the restoration of 46428, once 80097 is restored and running on the East Lancs Railway.

After much deliberating and a couple of false starts, the Bury Standard 4 Group came to an agreement with the East Lancs Railway which required the owning group to clear tons of debris that filled the old platform 1 area of Bolton Street Station in return for being able to a purpose built shed to house 80097 and subsequently 46428. Around 20 lorry loads of soil, rock, trees and general rubbish were cleared from the site before building could commence.

In 2014 a member purchased a full set of connecting rods for 46428 from the Bluebell Railway to replace those which were missing when the engine was bought from the Strathspey Railway.

46428 was stored in the sidings near to Bury (South) signal box for a number of years. It was painted in red and yellow livery to coincide with the ‘Day Out with Thomas the Tank Engine’ Weekends as ‘James the Red Engine’.

By October 2016 work on overhauling the locomotive had commenced at Bury with the axle boxes being removed from the frames and cleaning of the driving wheels and frames started.

By early 2018 the driving wheels had been sent to the South Devon Railway for tyre turning. They were returned in mid 2018 after the work was completed.

By April 2018 a new smokebox had been delivered to the the East Lancs Railway and steel plates were being cut for a replacement rear dragbox.

In August 2019 it was reported that that the locomotive could be back on its driving wheels by the end of 2019. The aim being to have the locomotive taken into the workshop before the winter weather sets in.

In December 2021 it was reported that the frames, boiler, turned down driving wheels and new steel for the cab roof had all been located around the Bury Standard 4 Group’s workshop on the East Lancs Railway ready for the locomotive to be rebuilt.