NORFOLK’S Whitwell & Reepham Station was set to formally launch Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns 0-4-0ST Agecroft No. 3 (7681/1951) into traffic just after this issue of The RM went to press, marking the completion of the first overhaul to be carried out on site since the railway opened 13 years ago.
The locomotive’s debut was to take place during the aptly titled Missed & Greatly Needed gala on February 26/27, which not only tipped a nod to the station’s Midland & Great Northern Railway (M&GN) origins, but also summed up the poignancy of the occasion. For this gala was to witness both a locomotive’s welcome and another one’s farewell, as resident Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST Victory (2199/1945) made its final appearance in steam before the expiry of its boiler ticket.
Duties
The two locos were expected to work between 10.00 and 16.00 on both days, working passenger and goods services, both independently and doubleheaded. Victory, which spent its pre-preservation career on the Chatham Dockyard system, has been the mainstay of Whitwell & Reepham steam operations for the past decade, and so this event really was to serve as a symbolic ‘passing of the torch’ before the loco took a wellearned rest.