Dorset’s Swanage Railway has launched a £350,000 appeal to return London & South Western Railway (LSWR) ‘T3’ 4-4-0 No. 563 to full working order.
The 563 Locomotive Group, under the umbrella of the Swanage Railway Trust, hopes to raise the money in a suitable time window to allow the 1893-built former National Railway Museum loco to steam again in just two years.
The decision to return the Adams 4-4-0 to steam came after a detailed mechanical inspection of the locomotive by the Flour Mill workshops in the Forest of Dean, where the loco was stripped to its component parts.
The survey found No. 563 is in a good mechanical condition, and that restoring it to operational condition is a realistic and feasible proposition.
Read more in the July 2019 issue of The RM – on sale now!
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