This locomotive was built by Fox, Walker & Co in 1874 for Nixon’s Navigation Colliery complex, Mountain Ash, Merthyr Tydfil, where it stayed for all of its working life.
It was donated to the Bristol Harbour Railway (BHR) by the National Coal Board in 1962 and became the first locomotive owned by the museum.
Prior to the preserved BHR opening in 1978 the locomotive was initially stored at Radstock Station. The plan at that time was that Radstock would be a major part of the initiative to re-open a section of the Somerset and Dorset Railway. The Somerset Railway and Dorset Railway Trust relocated to Washford on the West Somerset Railway in 1976.
When the Radstock project was disbanded the locomotive was stored at Bitton on what is now the Avon Valley Railway (but was then the Bristol Suburban Railway Society) between 1977 and 1986.
The locomotive was then housed in the Bristol Industrial Museum but when this became the M Shed Museum the locomotive was put into store again.
There are believed to be no plans to restore the locomotive to steam which is owned by Bristol City Council. The ownership provides the council with a member of each of the three main locomotive builders in the Bristol area. The council also own Avonside Works No 1764 Portbury and Peckett Works No 1940 Henbury.
Preserved British Steam Locomotives 