The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR) has announced the second locomotives to star at the railway’s flagship event, the Cotswold Festival of Steam over the late May bank holiday (24-26 May). This year, the Festival takes as its theme ‘Celebrating Railway 200’.
Now announcing our second guest loco; BR standard 4 75069! Visiting with thanks to the Severn Valley Railway, 75069 joins the lineup forthis year's Cotswold Festival of Steam alongside 34092 City of Wells, and our home fleet of locomotives.
“Built in 1955 at Swindon works (by then under BR control), the standard 4s were mixed-traffic locomotives. 75069 was built for the Southern Region with alarger BR1B tender to allow for greater coal and water capacity, the latterimportant as the SR did not have water troughs from which to refill the tenderen route. A 60ft long 4-6-0, with a 26.7 sq ft fire grate, 75069’s maximumworking boiler pressure is 225psi. Eighty were originally outshopped, of whichonly six survived into preservation, half of which are currently operational.
Although only in service for just over a decade,75069 was allocated to several depots, entering service at Dover Marine in 1955, then moving briefly to Bournemouth before a stint working out of StewartsLane, followed by allocation to Nine Elms. In 1965, the locomotive was allocated to Eastleigh before being withdrawn in 1966, after 11 years of service, and sent to Barry scrapyard.
For seven years, 75069 languished in the open air until it was rescued in 1973 by the 75069 Fund, which had formed in 1971 withthe express purpose of saving the locomotive. Once saved, the process offundraising for the restoration of the locomotive began. As this includedretubing the boiler, it was no small task and 11 years later, the restorationwas completed just in time for the locomotive (still in undercoat!) to takepart in the September 1984 Enthusiasts Weekend.
Over the next decade, 75069 steamed regularly on the SVR, aswell as carrying out mainline duties on charter services, including frequentappearances on the Red Dragon (between south Wales and the south west), theCambrian and even participating in the GWR 150 celebrations, despite itsSouthern pedigree. Withdrawn with a cracked firebox flange in 1994, 75069 remained in storage until 2013, when a heavy overhaul of the locomotive began.This extensive five-year project saw much of 75069’s key components replaced and was completed at the end of 2018, at a cost of more than £900,000 and 25,000 hours of combined staff and volunteer effort."
