This locomotive was built by Hudswell Clarke in 1921 for the Manchester Ship Canal (MSC) Railway. It was one of the long tanks – having a water capacity of 850 gallons compared with the 580 gallons of the short tanks.
The railway had a fleet of 70 locomotives which ran on one of the largest privately owned networks in the country.
The MSC Railway was able to receive and despatch goods trains to and from all the UK’s main line railway systems, using connecting junctions at three points in the terminal docks. Two were to the north of the canal, operated by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and the London and North Western Railway. The third was to the south, operated by the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC), where by the MSC Railway had taken over the old and abandoned route of the CLC, giving them a monopoly on traffic to the new soap works and steel mill
The locomotive has spent time on a number of heritage railways, including the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway where it was taken out of service in December 2013. It stopped running because it failed its annual boiler examination.
The overhaul commenced at Blunsdon on the Swindon & Cricklade Railway in July 2014
By March 2018 work had commenced on drilling out the stays of the backplate prior to removing the firebox. By October the wheelsets and inner firebox had been removed in preparation for a full overhaul of the locomotive.
Preserved British Steam Locomotives 