LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 No. 44871 is a preserved British

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

. It 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 1945.

Service history

Rotherham Masbrough railway station 2058915 07d2d0d7

4871 is an

LMS Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier Class 5 4-6-0, commonly known as the Black Five, is a class of steam locomotives. It was introduced by William Stanier and built between 1934 and 1951. A total of 842 were built, initially ...

locomotive, originally numbered 4871 entering service with the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...

(LMS) in March 1945 and having 40000 added to its number under

British Rail 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 Comm ...

ways after nationalisation in 1948. 44871 was one of the last steam locomotives to be withdrawn from service, surviving until August 1968, the last year of steam on British Rail. She was also one of four locomotives chosen (among two other members of her class) to take part in the famous

Fifteen Guinea Special The ''Fifteen Guinea Special'' was the last main-line passenger train to be hauled by steam locomotive power on British Rail on 11 August 1968 before the introduction of a steam ban that started the following day, the extra day added to allow fo ...

on Sun 11 August 1968. 44871 was in-charge of the

Carlisle Citadel Carlisle Citadel or The Citadel is a group of buildings on the site of a former early modern fortress on English Street in Carlisle, Cumbria. It comprises two towers, both of which are Grade I listed buildings: the Nisi Prius Courthouse and th ...

Manchester Victoria Manchester Victoria station in Manchester, England, is a combined mainline railway station and Metrolink tram stop. Situated to the north of the city centre on Hunts Bank, close to Manchester Cathedral, it adjoins Manchester Arena which was c ...

leg of the tour which went south down the Settle and Carlisle Line. On this leg of the tour she double headed with 44781, 44871 acted as the pilot engine with 44781 being the train engine. 44871 is one of the three locomotives from that train to survive into preservation, the others being 45110 and 70013 ''Oliver Cromwell''.

Preservation

44871 was purchased directly from British Rail service for preservation, and so never had to be restored from scrapyard condition unlike other preserved locomotives which were sent to

Barry Island Barry Island () is a district, peninsula and seaside resort, forming part of the town of Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It is named after the 6th century Saint Baruc. Barry's stretch of coast, on the Bristol Channel, has the wor ...

. The majority of the Class 5s were purchased directly for preservation, with only six being purchased from Barry Island and thus requiring restoration to run again. Following withdrawal from revenue service 44871 remained at Carnforth, which would later become the Steamtown museum. Once the ban on operating steam locomotives over the national network was lifted in 1972, 44871 was used to operate mainline trains to places like York. It was during this period that she was given the name ''Sovereign''. 44871 was also a popular engine in Scotland, working trains along the

West Highland Line The West Highland Line ( – "Iron Road to the Isles") is a railway line linking the ports of Mallaig and Oban in the Scottish Highlands to Glasgow in Central Scotland. The line was voted the top rail journey in the world by readers of indepen ...

from Fort William to

Mallaig Mallaig (; ) is a seaport, port in Morar, on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. It faces Skye from across the Sound of Sleat. The Mallaig railway station, local railway station is the terminus of the West Highlan ...

(which she still runs decades later) working

West Coast Railways West Coast Railways (WCR) is a railway spot-hire company and charter train operator based at Carnforth MPD in Lancashire. Using buildings and other facilities previously owned by the Carnforth MPD#Steamtown Carnforth, Steamtown Carnforth visito ...

"Jacobite trains" for most of the year, alongside sister No. 45407 ''The Lancashire Fusilier'' and LNER K1 No. 62005. Following years of storage and the death of her owner in 2006, 44871 was purchased by Ian Riley and was taken to Bury for an overhaul to mainline standards. She returned to steam in 2009 and later undertook light and loaded test runs on the mainline alongside use on WCR's "Jacobite" trains. In the summer of 2010, she worked the final season of WCR's "Cambrian" trains along the

Cambrian Line The Cambrian Line (), sometimes split into the Cambrian Main Line () and Cambrian Coast Line () for its branches, is a railway line that runs from Shrewsbury in England, westwards to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli in Wales. Passenger train services ...

from

Machynlleth Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a po ...

Pwllheli Pwllheli ( ; ) is a market town and community on the Llŷn Peninsula (), in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It had a population of 4,076 in 2011, which declined slightly to 3,947 in 2021; a large proportion (81%) were Welsh language, Welsh speaking. ...

(the trains on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday ran to Pwllheli while the trains on Tuesday Thursday ran to

Porthmadog Porthmadog (), originally Portmadoc until 1972 and known locally as "Port", is a coastal town and community (Wales), community in the Eifionydd area of Gwynedd, Wales, and the historic counties of Wales, historic county of Caernarfonshire. It li ...

). It isn't currently possible to run steam trains down the Cambrian line since they are incompatible with the new

ERTMS The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is the system of standards for management and interoperation of signalling for railways by the European Union (EU). It is conducted by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and is the o ...

system that was put in place. In August 2010, 44871 was featured in an episode of

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' (colloquially referred to as ''Corrie'') is a British television soap opera created by ITV Granada, Granada Television and shown on ITV (TV network), ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres on a cobbled, terraced ...

where she hauled Roy and

Hayley Cropper Hayley Cropper (also Hayley Patterson) is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera ''Coronation Street'', played by Julie Hesmondhalgh. The character first appeared in the episode first broadcast on 26 January 1998. Hayley was the ...

's wedding train. 44871 carried 45407's "Lancashire Fusilier" nameplates for the occasion.

Current status

44871 is based at the

East Lancashire Railway The East Lancashire Railway is a heritage railway line in North West England which runs between Heywood, Greater Manchester and Rawtenstall in Lancashire. There are intermediate stations at Bury Bolton Street, , Summerseat and Ramsbott ...

alongside sibling No. 45407 ''The Lancashire Fusilier'', both of which are mainline certified regular used for

''Jacobite'' along the

from Fort William to

and back. She returned to service in August 2017 following the completion of another heavy overhaul which was done to mainline standards as before. In Summer 2021, 44871 was hired by the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, working between Whitby and Pickering, North Yorkshire.

Gallery

File:LMS Class 5 No 44871 (8063196119).jpg, 44871 Running around her train at

in Jul 2010. File:LMS Class 5 No 44871 (8063195430).jpg, 44871 Working down the

. File:44871 at Sheffield.jpg, 44871 at Sheffield on 12 June 2010. File:Fort William railway station 44871 The Jacobite.JPG, 44871 at Fort William with ''The Jacobite''.

References

Bibliography

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lms Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 4871 44871 Preserved London, Midland and Scottish Railway steam locomotives Individual locomotives of Great Britain Railway locomotives introduced in 1945 Standard-gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain 4-6-0 locomotives