The Black Five has arrived at Minehead after the long journey from the North by road. The loco will be used to haul the lengthy peak season trains on the line, a duty performed well last year when 45337 made a brief visit. Now the loco is due a longer spell and will revive memories of the S&D.
Updated: 23 June 2001
The following has been kindly provided by Phil Humphreys of the 26B Railway Co Ltd
"The Loco was built by Armstrong Whitworth in 1937 and spent most of its life at Agecroft shed near Manchester. The shed code was 26B and this is reflected in the name of the company that owns the loco - The 26B Railway Co Ltd. It was withdrawn from service in 1963 and went to the Barry Island scrap yard.
The loco was bought by the company from Woodham’s scrap yard, Barry in 1983 at a cost of £7,500 and transported to the East Lancs Railway at Bury. In 1985, we returned to Barry to purchase the tender at a cost £1,500.
In 1937, it cost the LMS the grand total of £6,244 to build the engine! By the time the loco steamed in May 1995 we had spent in excess of £150,000. This money was raised from our back pockets, car boot sales and the weekend running of a second hand model railway stall on Bury market.
The loco saw service on the East Lancs for two years before visiting Peak Rail in Derbyshire for two summer seasons in succession. We were honoured to open the new extension between Darley Dale and Rowsley. Since then we have visited the Nene Valley Railway and Mid Hants Railway. In 2000 we had a short but enjoyable stay on the West Somerset Railway.
We returned to the East Lancs Railway for substantial boiler repairs before briefly returning to steam on the East Lancs in the guise of Black Five 45156 'Ayrshire Yeomanry'. We left for a successful visit to the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in March. We are heading back down to West Somerset on the 18th June and will stay until the weekend of the 6/7th October."