"Russell" Returns Home

Last weekend marked a significant landmark in British railway preservation history. Russell is a 2-6-2 2ft gauge locomotive built by Hunslet of Leeds in 1906 for the Welsh Highland Railway. After that line closed in 1932, it was requisitioned by the government for war service on the Brymbo Ironwerks Railway in Oxfprdshire. In 1946 it was sold to Fayle's Tramway, an industrial railway on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset. It was purchased by the Birmingham Locomotive Club for the sum of £70. It was stored at a number of locations around England and Wales, and had an earlier restoration attempt, before its recent restoration by the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, which operates a short line in Porthmadog, Wales. Now, after more than 80 years, it has finally made a trial run on the line for which it was built


Video by Will Stratford.

Don Newing
Derbyshire, UK