Middleton mines engine was not what it seemed

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THE Middleton Railway has discovered that it has had an imposter in its midst for many years.

Ever since the industrial railway’s Engine House museum opened in 2007, a small 4wDM , on loan from the National Coal Mining Museum at the site of Caphouse colliery, has been on display

HE6273 was built in 1965 as a diesel-mechanical locomotive and was a standard Hunslet product, except it was fitted with a round-roofed cab at some stage in its career.

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The mines locomotive in the Engine House museum at the Middleton Railway has had its true identity revealed MRT

However, early last year, former Hunslet worker Roger Walton produced a photocopy of Hunslet’s build catalogue, which showed the build details of its works number 6273 – and that locomotive was built as
a diesel-hydraulic!

However, the museum’s No. 6273 clearly had mechanical transmission and it did not show any signs of having been modified from a hydraulic transmission. So the railway was left with a mystery on its hands – exactly what was the locomotive in its museum?

Basic research by member Steve Roberts showed Caphouse had a pair of diesels, one of each type.

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