A £22,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant enables a remarkable Leeds-built loco to move around the UK on a low-loader via its birthplace in Leeds, then Hull, London, Birmingham and Shrewsbury to its long-term home in Welshpool.
The London Museum of Water & Steam at Kew Bridge has been chosen to be the only London venue on the tour.
The museum has been a long-time supporter of the Friends of the Sierra Leone National Railway Museum and operates the only steam railway in the capital, motive power being from the hunslet stable.
From May 26 through to June 4, the London Museum of Water & Steam will play host to Hunslet 2-6-2T locomotive No 85, built in Leeds in 1954 for service in the West African nation of Sierra Leone.
The locomotive was purchased from the scrapman in Sierra Leone and brought back to the UK by the leading Mid-Wales tourist attraction the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway (W&LLR) in 1975.
It was working in Wales until 2010 when its boiler ticket ran out and for the past five years the locomotive has been on static display at the Locomotion Museum in Shildon – an ‘out-station’ of the National Railway Museum in York.
No 85 was the last steam locomotive from Sierra Leone that could be steamed. Still in Africa is its sister No 81 which, along with several other British-built engines and the Queen’s long-forgotten royal train, forms part of the incredible Sierra Leone National Railway Museum.
Those trains have survived 40 years of Ebola, civil war and scrapmen, and are now at the heart of an ambitious regeneration and education project in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital city.
No 85 will be on display at London Museum of Water & Steam as part of the African Railway Adventure half-term event, supported by the Sierra Leone Museum’s UK Friends group.
The London Museum of Water and Steam is pleased to affirm its support for the Sierra Leone National Railway Museum and its mazing project as part of the regeneration of Sierra Leone.
No 85 will be accompanied by a travelling museum exhibition, fun children’s activities for schools and families, plus interpretation.
The Heritage Lottery Fund grant is paying for the physical transport of the locomotive and the production of the travelling exhibits and activities.
Museum director Penny Jenkins: “We are all excited for the arrival of No 85 and to welcome back our Friends from Sierra Leone, we look forward to welcoming visitors old and new to The London Museum of Water and Steam over the May half term and hope that everyone will enjoy a ride on London’s only steam railway.”
Chairman of the UK-based Friends of Sierra Leone National Railway Museum, Helen Ashby, who will be accompanying No 85 for much of the trip, was delighted by the grant. “The Sierra Leone National Railway Museum and its Friends are very excited at being able to showcase SLR No 85 as a representative of Sierra Leone at relevant venues throughout the UK.
"Once engines of industry, the surviving locomotives from Sierra Leone like No. 85 are now engines for growth, helping to promote Sierra Leone to the world."
For more information about the tour see www.SierraLeoneRailwayMuseum.com
Article submitted by Penny Jenkins
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