The Train from Spain - Restoration in Spain
In the early 2000s, the locomotive and the other park rolling stock were purchased by a Barcelona-based group, with the aim of starting a railway along the sea-front in Mataró, which lies along the coast from Barcelona.
The group was unable to start the railway, but did continue to overhaul the locomotive No. 8457 and its sister, No. 8455.
When she arrived in Barcelona many components were missing, but between that time and her sale to the R&ERPS a great deal of work had been done, including the fabrication of a new cab and tender body, retyring of all wheelsets, and an overhaul of the locomotive’s motion. Unlike No.8455, 8457 had been restored to a new, more British outline, inspired in part by the LMS ‘Duchess’ class. This was particularly evident in the new cab, the shape of the smoke deflectors, and of course the crimson lake restoration livery.
The engineers in Spain had built a new tender tank on the original Krauss frames which, after work to improve its water tightness for testing at Ravenglass, subsequently would have required drastic alterations to be a success on the R&ER. It was decided it would be easier to keep this tender intact and build one that would meet current R&ER track and engineering requirements and also be more suitable for drivers. The tender was therefore gifted to the Killesbergbahn in Stuttgart, Germany, provided that Stuttgart could provide transport, which it did in March 2017. The Killesbergbahn also provided the society with a main steam pipe header casting, lamps and a set of scanned drawings.
The tender has been completely rebuilt and is intended to run with the locomotive Springerle, sister to Tazzelwurm, both of which were built for the Killesbergbahn in 1950.