WITH FULL REGULATOR

TYSELEY has announced that its fine GWR double chimney GWR Castle 4-6-0 No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe has been withdrawn for overhaul.

Although Bob Meanley is quoted as saying that the work shouldn’t take too long, it cannot be started until ongoing work on other locomotives is finished, so we may not see it back on the main line for a few years yet. Therefore, I thought it would be appropriate to pay homage to this superb and reliable main line performer.

No. 5043 was built in 1936 and originally named . It had a double chimney and a four row superheater fitted in 1958, when steam was just beginning to be edged out by the Warship diesels. It was allocated to Old Oak Common for most of the 1950s and then went to Cardiff Canton, before spending its last months before withdrawal in December 1963 at Cardiff East Dock (88L). It went to Barry, but was bought in 1973 by the Birmingham Railway Museum and stored at Tyseley, originally as spares for No. 7029 . However, it was decided in 1996 to restore