J21

I was pleased to see on the internet recently that one of my favourite engines is about to be restored (again!). For several years it has been up at Beamish Open Air Museum on the silly little length of track they have there but it looks likely that she will get some longer runs soon after more than forty years. If you want to find out more about the project see here

0-6-0 locomotive designs like this were the backbone of traffic operation on most of our secondary lines for nearly a century. There must have been several hundred designs around the same theme and thousands of locomotives.

'65033' is an LNER 'J21' and before that a North Eastern Railway Class 'C'. Designed by T.W.Worsdell she 'entered traffic'in March 1889 and ran until April 1962 - 73 years of service! She was one of the last of the 201 engines in the class in steam and piloted many passenger excursions in her time.

After withdrawal from service she led a charmed life at the back of the Darlington scrapyard and miraculously survived to make it up to Beamish in the early 1970's as part of their collection. I saw her being restored there (the first time!) around 1975.

I have a particular soft spot for '65033' because one snowy day in the 1950's I rode in her cab between Barnard Castle and Bowes when she was on snow ploughing duties. Those big cabs were pretty chilly in winter if the wind was from the other direction!