WD Austerity 2-8-0 79257
Encyclopedia
WD Austerity 2-8-0
The War Department "Austerity" 2-8-0 is a type of heavy freight steam locomotive that was introduced in 1943 for war service. A total of 935 were built.- Overview :...
, WD No. 79257 is a preserved British steam locomotive. It is the only survivor of its type.
Originally built by the Vulcan Foundry
Vulcan Foundry
Vulcan Foundry was a British locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire .-History:It was originally opened in 1832 as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches and crossings, and other ironwork following the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway...
in 1945, works No. 5200, it was given the WD No. 79257. During the liberation of Europe, it was transferred to Mainland Europe with the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
. After the war, it was sold to Nederlandse Spoorwegen
Nederlandse Spoorwegen
Nederlandse Spoorwegen , or NS, is the principal passenger railway operator in the Netherlands.Its trains operate over the tracks of the Dutch national railinfrastructure, operated by ProRail, which was split off from NS in 2003...
(NS, Dutch Railways), where it became part of the NS 4300II Class, No. 4383. NS in turn sold it, along with another classmate to Statens Järnvägar
Statens Järnvägar
The Swedish State Railways or SJ, originally the Royal Railway Board , is a former government agency responsible for operating the state railways in Sweden....
(SJ, Swedish State Railways), where it became SJ Class G11
SJ Class G11
The Statens Järnvägar Class G11 was a class of two ex-British War Department Austerity 2-8-0 steam locomotives, numbered 1930 and 1931...
No. 1931. SJ made extensive modernisation to the locomotive.
No. 1931 was saved from scrap by Keighley and Worth Valley Railway
Keighley and Worth Valley Railway
The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway is a long branch line that served mills and villages in the Worth Valley and is now a heritage railway line in West Yorkshire, England. It runs from Keighley to Oxenhope. It connects to the national rail network line at Keighley railway station...
and ran in SJ condition for several years. Extensive restoration work, began in 1993 has restored 79257 to more or less original condition, as "British Railways No. 90733", one higher than the last BR ex-WD Austerity 2-8-0
BR ex-WD Austerity 2-8-0
The British Railways ex-WD Austerity 2-8-0 was a class of 733 2-8-0 steam locomotives designed for heavy freight. These locomotives of the WD Austerity 2-8-0 type had been constructed by the War Department as war locomotives 1943-1945...
, 90732 Vulcan. Incidentally, one engine did very briefly carry the BR number 90733 as ex-WD Stanier Class 8F No. 48773
LMS Stanier Class 8F 8233
LMS Stanier Class 8F No. 8233, War Department Nos. 307, and later 70307, Iranian State Railways No. 41-109, British Railways No. 48773, is a preserved British steam locomotive. Its owners claim that it is " possibly Britain's most travelled preserved locomotive"....
(also preserved) was incorrectly numbered that upon its entering into BR stock in 1957, after being mistaken for an Austerity 2-8-0 type.