T9 to Stay at Swanage

T9 No 30120 steams away from Corfe Castle

A POPULAR steam engine is to stay at a Dorset heritage railway and is in line for an overhaul. It comes after the Swanage Railway Trust and the National Railway Museum reached an agreement for the National Collection’s Victorian London & South Western Railway T9 class steam locomotive No. 30120. The new agreement will see the 1899-built locomotive stored at the Swanage Railway following expiry of its boiler certificate in August 2020.

The agreement includes provision for limited disassembly, including a boiler lift, for the Swanage Railway Trust to assess the potential for the locomotive to be returned to steam.

No. 30120 was built at the Nine Elms works in London during 1899 for the London and South Western Railway. It was withdrawn in 1963 and later joined the National Collection where it went on display at the National Railway Museum in York.

It was then overhauled at the Flour Mill engineering works, in the Forest of Dean, for service on the Bodmin & Wenford Railway in 2010 before it moved to Swanage in 2017.

Matt McManus, of the Swanage Railway Trust, said: “The T9 has been a popular member of the Swanage Railway locomotive fleet for some years now and we are delighted to have reached agreement with the National Railway Museum for the T9 to stay in our care and, hopefully, be overhauled and returned to service.”

Anthony Coulls, Senior Curator of Rail Transport and Technology at the National Railway Museum, said: “The T9 remains a valued part of the museum’s collection and we have enjoyed sharing it with heritage lines across the country. We still see a working future for No. 30120 which is dependent on the practicality of another overhaul to working condition. No timetable has yet been set for the engineering assessment, although the Swanage Railway is keen to complete this as soon as possible for it to be included in its overall motive power plan."