WHEN the last of Collett’s 1927 ‘King’ Class 4-6-0s was withdrawn in December 1962, the vast majority of railway followers thought they would never see their like again powering along the routes of the former Great Western Railway.
But the very next passenger run by a ‘King’ was to be only a few months away, as one of the final batch of withdrawals – No. 6018 – was surprisingly restored to full running order to work a Stephenson Locomotive Society charter from Birmingham Snow Hill to Swindon Works via its former racing ground through Bicester then Greenford, Southall
