TIME TRAVEL WITH A ‘SPACESHIP’

ABR 9F 2-10-0 hauled the ‘Wind cutter’ rake of 16-ton mineral wagons during the Great Central Railway’s Autumn Steam Gala on October 1-3.

It’s a measure of just how well the GCR can recreate the steam era, with its superb mix of big engines and freight trains, that such a statement wouldn’t normally prompt even a fractional lift of an eyebrow – and it certainly wouldn’t be big news for a railway magazine.

But this was not just any 9F. This was the now unique and priceless No. 92134, the sole surviving example with the original single chimney, making its first visit away from its North Yorkshire Moors Railway base since