‘Spaceship’ lands again at the Moors!

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By Roger Melton

A ‘Spaceship’ – the now-unique single-chimneyed BR Standard 9F 2-10-0 No. 92134 – is to be based on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway for at least its 10-year boiler ticket.

Class members were so nicknamed by some enthusiasts for the amount of daylight visible under their boilers, which was a rare phenomenon in British-designed locomotives.

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The ex-Barry scrapyard locomotive has moved from the East Lancashire Railway to the NYMR for its final assembly after which it will join the Moorsline’s hire fleet. The 9F does not currently have a tender but arrangements are understood to have been made to hire one from a currently out-of-ticket locomotive until a new one is constructed.

BR Standard 9F No. 92134 on its way to Grosmont on April 23. 92134

The 9F’s move brings its preservation life so far in a full circle. The NYMR became its first home in preservation, in December 1980, and it subsequently moved in early 1984 to the premises of Steam & Sail at Brightlingsea in Essex for a proposed fast-track restoration that never happened.

Also about this time changes in the structure of the owning group left many of its members, mostly NYMR supporters, disenfranchised. They will therefore be pleased to see No. 92134 return to the line it was originally intended to be based on.

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