Hughes

**Hughes** is an elderly LYR Hughes 28 0-6-0 who works on the Moorland Steam Railway. He is one of the main characters and the oldest locomotives on the railway. The is known by locals as the "Gladsville Banker" because of his duty to bank trains up the 1in56 incline up towards Gladsville station out of the dockyard.

## Bio

Hughes was built by Horwich works in 1900 but was rebuilt from an Aspinall Class 27 in 1912 to the Class 28 designed by George Hughes. Little is known about his early life. One aspect known was that in 1924, he replaced the former "Gladsville Banker", a LNWR Cooke Q1 0-8-0, and became a resident on the line, despite his Lancashire origins.

In the late-1950s, a new Standard 4 was allocated to the line and Hughes decided to teach the newcomer how to handle passenger trains since the locomotive was very young and inexperienced. By 1962, Hughes had run for nearly 40 years on the line since 1924 and the line was now downgraded from a primary route to a secondary route or "branchline", with six other locomotives. Unfortunately, he had to deal with an overconfident Mickey Mouse tank that seemed to disrespect the line's speed limits and the safety of other rail users. Hughes knew that he was the last member of his class left since all the rest were scrapped and he was supposed to be scrapped himself but the line 'required' him and he continued into service.

When he went shunting at Crewe, Stanley looked after the dockyard in his absence but sadly made a mess of the dockyard when he returned and was (accidentally) shunted under the worn out coal flood loader. He was covered in coal from smokebox to tender but managed to prevent Jenny from leaving and told her and Stanley to help clean up the mess that was created.

## Personality

Hughes, being old, is a wise locomotive around the younger locomotives but sometimes, Hughes can be very sleepy thanks to his old age. On a few occations, Hughes shows that he does have a sense of humour.

## Livery

For most of his preserved life, Hughes is in BR Unlined Black with Late Crests on his tender. For once during this time, he was coupled with a Fowler 3,500 gallon tender in the same livery while his real was being repaired a Horwich Works. In 1999, Hughes was repainted into Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) Lined Black with his original number plates on his cab following restoration. In flashback scenes of his early life, Hughes is in the standard LMS pre-WWII unlined black with lettering on his tender.

## Basis or real locomotive

   Hughes is based off the real locomotive. It was one of 83 L&YR 28 class 0-6-0 goods locomotives constructed from 1909 to 1912 with 20 new builds and 63 rebuilds from the older 27 class and were designed by George Hughes. They were built to cope with the increased workload on the older locomotives which also needed some replacement. Withdrawals of the class began as early as 1936 which lead to 35 being passed into BR hands in 1948 with the final one retired in 1957. All have been scrapped.

BR No. 52592 was built at Horwich Works as L&YR class 27 No. 446 in 1899. It was rebuilt in 1912 to become 28 class 0-6-0 and was withdrawn and scrapped by BR in 1954.

## Trivia

Hughes being paired with a Fowler tender for a short while is a reference to the Thomas & Friends character James. He was based on a L&YR Class 28 that was built as an experimental 2-6-0 version of the class, but is coupled with a Fowler 3,500 gallon tender.

Hughes is voiced by Shane Sowter, only his voice was digitally lowered to sound more adult-like (since he's 17 years old).

Out of all the inside-cylinder locomotives on the Moorland Steam Railway, Hughes is the only one fitted with Joy valve gear (not Stephenson).

Hughes' model is a Shapeways model kit bought online with many hobby shop components.

* Hughes' BR Black model has a bit of paint bleed as it was painted first in automotive spray gloss black with matt vanish sprayed over to reduce the gloss. This error occurred with the gloss black.

Hughes has a Lancashire accent. This is a reference to where he was built (Horwich, Lancashire) and his original railway, the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway.

* This accent wasn't hard for Shane Sowter since he has a Lancashire accent passed down from his great grandparents from his grandfather's side, other than his Australian accent.

Hughes only counts his age after his rebuild to his current form in 1912.

Hughes carries a British Railways Late Crest for most of his appearances, which was never carried by No. 52592 or any LYR Class 28 since the last of the class was retired in 1957.

Hughes' name means 'descendant of Hugh'.

According to Hughes, he can't go fast because his front would try and dive due to the high speed. This is a reference to a design flaw that all L&YR Class 28s, both new build and rebuilds from Class 27s, suffered from when operating at high speed.