This locomotive was built in 1943 by the Hunslet Engine Company for the Ministry of Defence. It then entered service as WD75006.
See LNER class J94 for details.
The locomotive was delivered to the War Department depot at Burton Dassett in Warwickshire. It worked on the Melboune Military Railway before moving to the Longmoor Military Railway in February 1944. Later in 1944 it was allocated to the Ministry of Fuel and Power at Talywain opencast colliery.
In 1952 it was sold to Derek Crouch (contractors) Ltd, who used it at various open-cast coal mines in Northumberland.
In 1968 the locomotive was moved to Onllwyn in Glamorgan. Here it continued to work at an open-cast coal site until 1973 when it was taken out of service and kept for spares.
Llanilil OCCS opened in in the early 1970’s and was operated by Derek Crouch and at some time the locomotive was employed there before the site closed in the early 1980’s.
In 1976 the locomotive was permanently loaned to the Nene Valley Railway (NVR) by Derek Crouch (Contractors) Ltd. It then became the earliest member of the class to be preserved.
Rebuilding of the locomotive started in 1979 and was completed in 1984 when it emerged complete with vacuum and air brakes plus steam heating abilities. As the locomotive is the same as the LNER J94 class the NVR decided to give it the BR number 68081 (The BR locomotives were numbered 68000-68080).
After the completion of another ten year overhaul in 1995 the locomotive reverted to its original WD 75006 number and red livery.
It was taken out of service in 2005 when the boiler certificate expired an is awaiting an overhaul.
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