TFS – Move to Cumbria

The Train from Spain - Move to Cumbria

8457 Being loaded ready for travel to Cumbria

In early 2016, arrangements were made to transport the locomotive to the UK. Stuart Harrison arranged a haulier and made the necessary insurance arrangements.

A second trip to Spain was arranged, this time to supervise the loading of the locomotive. The locomotive was successfully loaded on 21 January, and the balance of payment made. In order to keep costs down, the transport occurred as part of a back-load and the locomotive therefore endured a 2000 mile trip around Europe before arriving at Old Hall Engineering in Bouth, Cumbria on 1 February 2016.

The project team now needed to inspect the locomotive in detail and understand exactly what works needed to be undertaken. It was planned to carry out work in a series of phases. Phase 1 would be initial works to get the locomotive moving under its own steam. Initial trials would then be carried out to see how the locomotive performed. There would still be some significant unknowns at this stage, given that the locomotive had not turned a wheel in nearly 90 years and had had major refurbishment work carried out in Spain. Following this, Phase 2 of the engineering works would be undertaken with a confirmed list of works to bring the locomotive into operational state. Further testing would then be carried out to accept the locomotive into service.