Bluebell Railway BR 80151 Reversing at Sheffield Park Station

Описание: Source: https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bl...

80151 is a member of the BR Standard 4MT 2-6-4T class, which was designed at Brighton under Riddles and introduced in 1951. They were based on an existing 2-6-4T design built by Fairburn for the LMS (itself derived from earlier Stanier and Fowler designs) and share many components with the Standard Class 4 4-6-0 tender engines.

155 of the engines were built at Brighton, Derby and Doncaster. Designed to a common loading gauge and able to work over all but the lightest of lines, they found useful employment on a wide variety of traffic including tightly-timed commuter trains (notably on the London, Tilbury and Southend line), general passenger trains and branch line work. 80151 comes from the final batch, constructed at Brighton in 1956.

The Standard Class 4MT tanks were more handsome in appearance than their LMS forebears, and were well liked by their crews for their comfortable cabs, free running, good steaming and economical operation. They performed their duties well until the arrival of diesel units for local services and the electrification of suburban routes rendered them redundant. Withdrawals began in 1964; the final nine were condemned by the Southern Region in July 1967. One of these was 80151, then based at Eastleigh shed. Like many of its fellows it was sent for scrap to Woodham's yard at Barry.

The engine was bought for preservation in 1974 by a group based in Essex, and work proceeded slowly until 1998 when it was transferred to the Bluebell Railway. Restoration was completed as quickly as possible and 80151 re-entered traffic in 2001. Since then, it has been a reliable and consistent performer; designed to run equally well backwards and forwards, it is ideally suited to the type of trains normally operated on the Bluebell. In early 2011 it received some boiler work, and the loco's certification was extended until May 2012.

Its most recent overhaul started in at the end of September 2015, one of the first major tasks being to remove the driving wheels for re-tyring, new tyres already having been obtained. The overhaul, which cost over half a million pounds saw heavy maintenance and boiler work undertaken in-house.