Black Five 45305

There was a black five too on Friday

 

 

45305 performing superbly

 

Here running round at Oxenhope

 

No.5305, curiously and unlike most preserved Black 5s, is usually known by its LMS number. It is an Armstrong Whitworth locomotive constructed in 1937. It spent its working life all over the more southerly sections of the former LMS network and saw its final allocation to Lostock Hall (in Preston), and lasted to the end of main line steam on British Railways in the summer of 1968. It was then sent for scrap.
No.5305 became the last locomotive on the scrap line of Drapers of Hull, who broke up 742 former BR locomotives. No.5305 was to have been the 743rd and last, but it was decided to keep it and bring it back to full running order.
Albert Draper was, at the time, the president of Hull Kingston Rovers Rugby League Football Club, and it was his fond wish that No.5305 would one day head a special train from Hull to Wembley, where he hoped the club would be playing in the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final.
The locomotive remains in the ownership of A E Draper and Sons and is in the long term care of the 5305 Locomotive Association, the successor to the Humberside Locomotive Preservation Group.
The locomotive is currently enjoying a spell on the main line but has been based on the Railway between duties.