SLR Class 81 No. 81

No.81 is a black 2-6-2 side tank steam locomotive.
== History ==
No.81 was built in 1947 by the Hunslet Engine company of Leeds, Yorkshire, England in the United Kingdom as builder's number 3398 for the Sierra Leone Government Railway (SLR) in Africa as their No.81 to their highly successful 2-6-2 designs. No.81 along with it's many siblings mainly operated passenger services on all SLR lines.https://www.sierraleonerailwaymuseum.org/the-collectionhttps://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=21979https://www.steamlocomotive.info/nloconoteshow.cfm?which=21979https://www.alamy.com/sierra-leone-photograph-of-sierra-leone-government-railway-locomotive-no-23-built-by-hunslet-engine-co-leeds-engine-specifications-are-handwritten-on-the-photographcaption-reads-standard-type-locomotive-c1898-199922113445-image337617938.htmlhttps://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/3+4/hunslet_SL.htmhttp://www.leedsengine.info/leeds/locolist.asp
Upon the closure of the SLR in 1975 No.81 was withdrawn from service but saved due to the general manager Richard Norman ordering No.81 be stored along with 17 other pieces of rolling stock at the back of the workshops at Freetown and had the doors welded shut.
However the collection was suspected to have been scrapped during the desperate times of the civil war in the country from 1991 to 2002. However a British Army officer Colonel Steve Davies who was a railway enthusiast found the workshops (which had been used as a home for displaced peoples during the war) and inside No.81 among other locomotives and carriages. In 2005 the Sierra Leone National Railway Museum opened to the public with No.81 having been cosmetically restored though still missing a pair of driving wheels.
== Trivia ==
* No.81 is the most incomplete preserved locomotive in Sierra Leone.
* It's sibling No.85 is preserved in mid-Wales, United Kingdom.
== Bibliography ==
Category:Locomotives
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:Tank locomotives
Category:Side tank locomotives
Category:2-6-2 locomotives
Category:2-6-2 steam locomotives
Category:2-6-2T locomotives
Category:2-6-2T steam locomotives
Category:Preserved locomotives
Category:Built in 1947
Category:Sierra Leone
Category:2 foot 6 inch gauge
Category:Narrow-gauge locomotives
Category:Narrow-gauge steam locomotives
Category:Narrow-gauge
Category:Six-coupled locomotives
Category:Hunslet locomotives
Category:Sierra Leone Government Railway
Category:Sierra Leone National Railway Museum
Category:Civil War Locomotives
Category:Africa
Category:Prototype locomotives