Built 1926 Foxfield Railway
This locomotive was built by Kerr, Stuart & Company in 1926.
The design is an unusual one, with outside valve gear, no front footplate and a very small saddletank. It was built for the British Gas Light Company’s gas works at Etruria in Stoke-on-Trent to shunt coal wagons from the mainline at Etruria yard, this work having previously been carried out by horses.
In 1949/50 two new small Fowler diesel mechanical locomotives arrived and the Kerr Stuart locomotive was sold on to the Brookfield Foundry & Engineering Company Ltd. This foundry was appropriately located in the former Kerr Stuart works where 4388 had been built twenty four years earlier.
The foundry gradually became inactive and rail traffic ceased in about 1962 and 4388 was stored in a corner of the works for the next twenty years. Eventually when the foundry went into liquidation in late 1982 the locomotive was sold to the Foxfield Railway where it arrived in February 1983.
It was then restored to steam on the Foxfield Railway
It was then restored to steam on the Foxfield Railway and ran until 1999.
The locomotive was then stored on the Foxfield Railway whilst it awaited an overhaul.
In June 2020 the ownership of the locomotive passed to Jack Dibnah.
As the new owner has boiler work experience he was planning to overhaul it and have it back in operation at the end of 2020.
In June 2022 it was reported that it was planned to have the locomotive back in operation in September 2022 on the Foxfield Railway.
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Preserved British Steam Locomotives 