Dorset’s Swanage Railway has launched a £350,000 appeal to return London & South Western Railway (LSWR) ‘T3’ 4-4-0 No. 563 to full working order.
The 563 Locomotive Group, under the umbrella of the Swanage Railway Trust, hopes to raise the money in a suitable time window to allow the 1893-built former National Railway Museum loco to steam again in just two years.
The decision to return the Adams 4-4-0 to steam came after a detailed mechanical inspection of the locomotive by the Flour Mill workshops in the Forest of Dean, where the loco was stripped to its component parts.
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The survey found No. 563 is in a good mechanical condition, and that restoring it to operational condition is a realistic and feasible proposition.
Read more in the July 2019 issue of The RM – on sale now!
