LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T No. 41312 is an LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T that was built at

Crewe Works Crewe Works is a British railway engineering facility located in the town of Crewe, Cheshire. The works, which was originally opened by the Grand Junction Railway in March 1843, employed around 7,000 to 8,000 workers at its peak. In the 1980s ...

in May 1952. It is one of four members of the class left in preservation but one of two that are located on the mainland (the second engine being 41241). The other two are located on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

Working life

41312 was built by

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...

at Crewe Works in May 1952. From new until withdrawal it was allocated to the Southern Region of BR with its first shed allocation being at Faversham (73E) from May 1952. It was later allocated to: Ashford, Barnstaple Junction, Brighton and Bournemouth. In the last few months of steam operations on the Southern Region it was allocated to Nine Elms (70A) from 17 April 1967 and it was to remain there for the remainder of its working career. It was withdrawn from service by BR when steam operations ended on the Southern Region of British Railways in July 1967. Following withdrawal it was sold to

Woodham Brothers Woodham Brothers Ltd is a trading business, based mainly around activities and premises located within Barry Docks, in Barry, Wales, Barry, South Wales. It is noted globally for its 1960s activity as a scrapyard (hence its colloquial name of Ba ...

and taken to Barry Scrapyard.

Preservation

Mainline certification

In the late 1990s, it was overhauled for use on the national network. For this it was given the

TOPS Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) is a computer system for managing railway locomotives and rolling stock, known for many years of use in the United Kingdom. TOPS was originally developed between the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), ...

number (

British Rail Class 98 The British Rail Class 98 is a TOPS, Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) classification that has been used to cover all steam locomotives used on the mainline in Britain, but also has a particular usage for the three Vale of Rheidol Rail ...

) 98212. At the time the Mid Hants Railway were running their own charter train company known as "Daylight Railtours" and it was decided for it to be certified for mainline use to work a couple of smaller trains around the south of England. Due to its limited water capacity of 1,350 gallons, it was not able to stray too far from its home at the Mid Hants and it was not able to work the normal 10-to-11 coach trains that Daylight Railtours usually ran. It returned to service in 2016 after being overhauled, but has not been certified for mainline use.

References

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External links

41312 Passing through Virginia Water
Preserved London, Midland and Scottish Railway steam locomotives Locomotives saved from Woodham Brothers scrapyard Railway locomotives introduced in 1952 Individual locomotives of Great Britain