Longmoor Military Railway
What operated Taff Vale Railway O1 class from 1927 to 1947?
Taff Vale Railway O1 class The Taff Vale Railway O1 class was a class of 0-6-2T steam tank locomotives designed by Tom Hurry Riches and introduced to the Taff Vale Railway in 1894 . Withdrawal and disposal . All were withdrawn from traffic between 1925 and 1931 . Locomotive 28 . Locomotive No . 28 is the last surviving Welsh-built standard gauge locomotive . It began its TVR career working the mineral and coal trains from collieries to port . By 1922 when the Great Western Railway had taken control , it had run 483,189 miles , and by 1923 was given a major overhaul , receiving a new boiler from the West Yard Works . Absorbed into the GWR fleet , No . 28 was renumbered No . 450 , and given a GWR-style cover over its safety valve , its external design was unchanged . It was withdrawn from service on 30 October 1926 , but was found to be in good mechanical condition and sold to the Government in 1927 , for use on the Woolmer Military Instructional Railway , later called the Longmoor Military Railway . The engine was named Gordon , after the General of Khartoum , and was kept in immaculate condition in Hampshire , performing relatively light duties compared to its TVR working days . The Second World War broke out and No . 28 was renumbered W.D . 205 , then W.D . 70205 , before becoming surplus again and put into storage . It was then sold in 1947 to the National Coal Board and used at their Hetton colliery railway . It was renumbered No . 67 , though still retaining the Gordon nameplates as it engaged in heavy work on the coalfields again . It received a major overhaul in 1955 , with minor alterations to its external design , but by 1959 it needed boiler repairs and was withdrawn from service in 1960 . Preservation . Following requests to NCB that it should be saved , locomotive 28 was successfully presented to British Railways for preservation in 1962 . It is now part of the National Collection . It was originally intended that the last Welsh-built standard gauge locomotive be restored to original TVR condition at the Caerphilly Locomotive Works , however the site was given notice of closure and No . 28 was the last to leave for storage in Swindon and London . In 1966 , it was returned to Caerphilly as the National Museum of Wales had been given custodianship of the locomotive . During the late 1960s and early 1970s the engine was restored to working order by the Caerphilly Railway Society and ran for about 7 years from 1983 , until taken out of service to await routine boiler examination . Caerphilly Railway Society subsequently closed . The locomotive then spent over a decade on loan to the Dean Forest Railway who dismantled it for a more thorough restoration , but this was unsuccessful due to the discovery of cracked springs . The NRM later in 2013 moved the locomotive to the Llangollen Railway where it was to be reassembled . In 2013 the cosmetic restoration of No . 28 was set to go ahead thanks to a three-way partnership between the National Railway Museum , the Llangollen Railway , and the Gwili Railway , with the aim of returning the locomotive to original condition . In 2014 it moved to the Gwili Railway on static loan under the care of the Gwili Vintage Carriages Group , with the current agreement due to expire in February 2020 . On 1 October 2019 the National Railway Museum and Welsh Railways Trust ( Formerly Gwili Vintage Carriages Group ) announced a three-year overhaul agreement to return it to steam in a £160,000 project , part-funded by a £18,000 grant from the Association for Industrial Archaeology . This grant will be used to restore the rolling chassis of the locomotive , which includes original Taff Vale Railway components . The overhaul will be carried out at the Gwili Railway , where it will then work .