OFFERED for sale towards the end of 2023, the Dean Forest Diesel Association’s two Brush Type 2s, Nos. 31210 and 31235, have moved to a new base at the Great Central Railway (Nottingham) after being placed in the custodianship of the Type 1 Locomotive Company rather than being sold. The pair of ‘31s’ left Lydney Junction by road for Ruddington during the first half of February.
The two Class 31s have very different futures in store. No. 31210, which had been at the Dean Forest Railway since 2002, has undergone an extensive and thorough restoration over the past 10 to 15 years and now sports 1980s Railfreight grey but requires wheelset replacement before it can run again. It is planned to use the bogies currently under No. 31235 to return No. 31210 back to working order, after which, following stripping, No. 31235 is likely to be sent for scrap.
Work to complete No. 31210 at Ruddington will be undertaken once repairs to the Type One Locomotive Company’s No. D5830 (31563) have been finished; the locomotive is being reassembled following work and recently had its radiators refitted.
No. 31210 has yet to operate in preservation; it last saw use as part of Immingham’s Petroleum (FPCI) pool in 1991 and its most recent passenger, it hauled a Cleethorpes to Carlisle charter organised by Crowle Community Hall.
