7715 – Preserved British Steam Locomotives

7715 was built by Kerr Stuart and Co of Stoke on Trent in 1930, shortly before the firm was taken over by the Hunslet Engine Company.

It was based at St Blazey in Cornwall for the major part of its life where duties included pick-up freight and china clay traffic for which the area is well known. In September 1952 in moved to Aberbeeg before returning to St Blazey a month later. The final years of 7715 on the national network were spent at Duffryn Yard, Port Talbot where it had arrived in January 1962.

7715 was transferred to London Transport in 1963 and was used on works trains and for shunting at Neasden and Lille Bridge Depots. 7715 was given the number L99 and painted in maroon London Transport livery. It remained here until December 1969.

In January 1970 L99 arrived at Quainton and entered service on the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.

It was taken out of service for overhaul which was completed in 1972 after which it ran as 7715. In 1979 it was given a heavy overhaul. At the next overhaul 7715 was brought up to the standard required to operate on British Rail so that it could run as the renumbered L99 on special steam trains on the London Underground to Neasden.

7715 had an intermediate overhaul in 2003 which included a cylinder re-bore, with the assistance of the Severn Valley Railway. It is possible this will be the last re-bore before it will be necessary to sleeve the cylinders.

After failure at Christmas 2005 the locomotive spent a period out of operation until agreement was reached with South Coast Steam for them to restore it. The agreement involved 7715 being available for hire by South Coast Steam to other railways and returned to Quainton when not in use.

In 2008 it was hired out to the Spa Valley Railway for a two year period after which it returned to Quainton for storage until 2011 when 7715 went to the North Norfolk Railway for a two year hire period. It has however been withdrawn from service with a cracked boiler foundation ring. This was assessed at Llangollen after which 7715 returned to Quainton in 2014 where an overhaul started in 2017.