LMS 27505 is an North London Railway 75 Class, 0-6-0 dock tank engine.
History[]
It was built - under the wing of the then-Chief Mechanical Engineer, John C Park - in 1880 as number 76 (later 116), at the NLR's own Bow Works. This engine, along with many of its sisters, were built to shunt in the Docklands of East London. Despite being built purely for shunting, they were nevertheless compact but powerful engines. When the North London Railway's operations were taken over by another railway - the London and North Western (LNWR) in 1909, number 75 was re-numbered 2650. Upon Grouping in 1923, it was transferred to LMS stock and re-numbered again as 7505. Less than a decade later it was placed on the duplicate list and so was placed in the 20000 series for engines on the duplicate list. Some of the class (7505 included) were sent to work on the Cromford and High Peak line, in Derbyshire. In 1948, Nationalisation of the railways took effect. The LMS was now the London Midland Region of British Railways, and its new number was now 58850. By 1960, it was the last of the class to be withdrawn, and stored at Derby Works, possibly awaiting scrapping.
Luckily, this was not the case, and the little engine was bought by a preservation society and moved to its new home - the Bluebell Railway - where it was mended and repainted into LNWR livery, regaining its old number 2650. It ran until the early 1990's, and before then it was painted in either BR Unlined Black with the legend 'British Railways' in full on the tanks with the number 58850 below it, or painted in LMS plain black as 27505.
After retirement (again), it was loaned to Barrow Hill Engine Sheds in 1999, and returned to the Bluebell Railway in 2008. It is currently in need of an overhaul.
Trivia[]
- Its the only preserved engine from the North London Railway.
- It appeared in The Railway Series in the book "Stepney The Bluebell Engine".