This is 5643, doing what it does best....
The Furness Railway Trust's Great Western Railway 0-6-2T Number 5643 is at the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway in the Yorkshire Dales near Skipton, to haul Santa Special trains in the run up to Christmas. This is new territory for the "56".
STOP PRESS Further new territory is being lined up for early 2010: 5643 will move to the Ribble Steam Railway from Embsay to appear at the Preston line's Steam Gala on February 6th and 7th. It will be starring at this event alongside FRT stablemate "Cumbria" which will be making its second consecutive RSR Gala appearance. Also scheduled is a freight photo charter on Friday 5th February - the first time that 5643 has been "on the coals" since 1960!!
The loco has spent the majority of 2009 at what is becoming its home from home, the Llangollen Railway in North Wale, although it did have a brief foray further south and back over the border into England, at the Severn Valley Railway, and it is due to return to Llangollen in April 2010 for the majority of the rest of the year.
The 1925-built locomotive had a busy September - its appearance as a star turn at the SVR's autum gala on 25th-27th September - one of the biggest gala events to be found on any heritage line in the country - came hot on the heels of its similar role at the Llangollen gala earlier in the same month!
Click here for details of planned steamings for 5643.
The
locomotive had spent virtually all of 2008 on hire to the LR. However, it
did earn a seaside holiday, with a return month back at the North
Norfolk Railway last summer.
This engine was a wandering minstrel for the Trust in 2007 - its return to Llangollen to see out that year was its ninth separate hire to a heritage railway that year!
Since its relaunch into traffic at the Llangollen Railway gala in September 2006 to the end of 2007, 5643 ran no less than 3678 miles, not to mention around 1500 on the back of a low loader going from one preserved railway to the next!
The locomotive had started 2007 hard at work hauling trains on the Llangollen Railway - as part of a seven month hire agreement. Then it went to the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway in time for the Mixed Traffic Gala weekend in May. These were the engine's first scheduled passenger duties on the railway where it had been restored.
Then
it was off to the Barry
Island Railway in South Wales, a poignant booking for the engine: not
only did it see out its final days of its British Railways service shedded
in Barry, it then went "next door" to the Woodham's Scrapyard where
it languished before being saved for preservation.
On the way back north from Barry, 5643 was a guest of the East Lancashire Railway for its June gala event, and fitted in some normal duties on the Bury line before coming back to Haverthwaite for the summer gala there and for some routine maintenance work.
Then it was off again, for a month beside the sea at the North Norfolk Railway, then to the Llangollen Railway for its September gala, and penultimately a short hire period at the Great Central Railway in the East Midlands, before returning to North Wales for the Santa Specials at Llangollen.
If you wish to hire the locomotive, please contact us.
For full details of where 5643 is, and is planned to be, and when, please see our special page on its current whereabouts and future programme. We also have a page charting its exploits on tour.
The project to return 5643 to action had suffered a frustrating
10 month delay - when a new regulator casting had to be made after a crack
was identified in the original in the aftermath of the engine's first run
under its own power as it celebrated its 80th birthday!
On Sunday 16th October 2005, a test steaming was carried out as part of the
final stage of an 18-year restoration programme.
The locomotive is seen here raising steam outside the goods shed in the yard
at Haverthwaite that morning.
At 2.15pm, with Trust Chairman Tim Owen and 5643 Project Leader Keith Brewer on the footplate, the regulator was opened and the engine moved off smoothly in the yard at Haverthwaite, to cheers from assembled volunteers. Half an hour later, there was a whistle chorus when the service train from Lakeside arrived to greet the newcomer.
Only a few problems surfaced - as well as the regulator, the blower and cylinder lubricator need further attention - but otherwise the locomotive threw up few surprises. Once these were rectified, the insurance company's boiler inspector came to issue a "ticket" for the boiler, and a test run was carried out on the full length of the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway, exactly one month after the first steaming. The crew reported no problems - indeed they were impressed by the engine's power and sure-footedness.
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The special train is seen here (left) at Lakeside station preparing to return to Haverthwaite, and earlier (right) pausing at Linsty Green on the way up the hill from Haverthwaite |  |
The Trust has had to raise every penny of the £100,000 cost of the restoration, through donations and a variety of fund-raising methods. Volunteers have put in many thousands of hours of labour, often in the open air, to return the locomotive to working order.
5643 is the Trust's third operational steam locomotive, joining Austerity "Cumbria" and Furness Railway Number 20.
5643 was built at the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works in October 1925. It spent its entire working life in South Wales, and was withdrawn from Barry Shed in July 1963, moving the short distance to the now famous Woodham's scrapyard in Barry. Woodham's did not scrap 5643 and over 200 other steam locomotives, thus saving them for preservation. Over 100 of this number have now been returned to steam.
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