East Lancashire Railway, Bury

Image: © David Dixon Taken: 25 Jul 2015

A view from Knowsley Street towards the bridge over the Metrolink. On the far side of the bridge, Keighley & Worth Valley Railway’s preserved former British Railways Bulleid 7P5FA 4-6-2 ‘West Country’ class locomotive number 34092 ‘City of Wells’ is pulling a steam train up the steep slope, nicknamed "the ski jump" whilst operating as a guest locomotive on the East Lancashire Railway. One of the 4-6-2 Light Pacific steam locomotives designed for the Southern Railway by its Chief Mechanical Engineer Oliver Bulleid, 34092 was built at the Brighton Works in 1949, after the nationalisation of the railways in Britain; it was originally named “Wells” but was renamed “City of Wells” a year later. The engine was withdrawn in November 1964 and sold to the Woodham Bros scrap-yard in South Wales, remaining there until being purchased by a group of individuals in 1971 who brought it to the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in November of that year. It returned to service with KWVR in 1979 and worked on special charters all over the country. The locomotive was withdrawn in 1989 to begin, what turned out to be, a 25 year restoration back to running order and as-built appearance. It finally returned to service again in August 2014. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR_West_Country_and_Battle_of_Britain_classes SR West Country and Battle of Britain (Light Pacific) classes (Wikipedia) http://kwvr.co.uk/steam-train/british-railways-bullied-west-country-pacific-4-6-2-no-34092-city-of-wells/ British Railways, Bulleid West Country Pacific 4-6-2 No. 34092 ‘City of Wells’ (KWVR)

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