THE anniversary of the closure of Middleton Broom Pit 50 years ago was marked with the Last Coals to Leeds gala over the weekend of September 29-30 at the city’s Middleton Railway.
A popular attraction was Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST No. 3839 of 1956 Wimblebury, visiting West Yorkshire from the Foxfield Railway.
Wimblebury is the latest Austerity to work at the heritage line during the preservation era – fellow Foxfield resident Whiston having visited in 2004 and Quainton-based NCB No. 66 (No. 3890 of 1964) and No. 19 (No. 3818 of 1954) from the Bo’ness & Kinneil during the Hunslet 150 event in 2015.
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Resident Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST No. 1544 of 1924 Slough Estates No. 3 lost its Slough Trading Estate identity beneath vinyl transfers to become sister engine No. 3 Nineteen Fifty Four (1872/1954), the last steam locomotive ordered, and indeed used, at Broom Colliery.
The line’s Manning, Wardle L class 0-6-0ST 1601 of 1903 Matthew Murray was repainted green and renamed Forward after NCB Yorkshire Main classmate No. 1690.
Appropriate wagons were not forgotten either. They included a five-plank open in pre-NCB Middleton Colliery livery, now numbered 50 to mark this event; a flat wagon in Middleton Colliery livery; a Dogfish hopper wagon, now in NCB livery; and a 13-ton open wagon in bauxite livery, as used in the 1958 special train to mark 200 years of the line.
A limited edition run of 50 model wagons numbered ‘50’ to match the newly overhauled wagon are on sale in railway’s shop for £16.50.
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