This locomotive was built by the Hunslet Engine Company in 1945 to work at the Ackton Hall Colliery Co. at Featherstone near Pontefract. It was named there after the colliery manager’s daughter.
Because coal industry nationalisation was expected the company kept the locomotive in ex-works condition, steaming it once per month in order to claim maximum compensation for new plant.
Beatrice was given a major overhaul at the Hunslet works in 1964, also fitted with the “gas producer” system including an underfeed stoker. The locomotive was returned to Ackton Hall with a new NCB South Yorkshire Area livery of dark red rather than the original green, and now numbered S119 in the NCB fleet.
The pit was the first to close following the end of the 1984-85 miners’ strike as geological difficulties had made it impossible for the pit to continue production. Beatrice was sold some years prior to the pits closure being sold into preservation in 1976.
Operating from 1982 the locomotive has been based at the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway for longer than its previous industrial career. As part of preserving the locomotive the rebuild undertaken by Hunslet in1964 was reversed to return the locomotive to its original condition.
It was overhauled again and returned to service in 2012.
Beatrice has the upgrades of a rocking grate, hopper ashpan and a Lempor exhaust system.
It remained in service on the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway for some time before being taken out of service when the boiler certificate expired.
In August 2019 it was reported that an overhaul of the locomotive was well advanced as by the previous month the boiler was back in the frames and cladding was in progress.
The locomotive returned to service at the Embsay & Bolton Steam Railway in August 2020.
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Preserved British Steam Locomotives 