Ramsbottom and BR Standard class 4 80080

 

Designed by Robert Riddles, 80080 was built by British Railways at their Brighton Works and entered revenue earning traffic in March 1954 and was initially allocated to Plaistow m.p.d. (33A). Her work was in a pool of locomotives hauling the daily commuter services into Fenchurch Street – the London terminus of the London Tilbury & Southend line.

 

In 1962 when this line became electrified, she was moved to Croes Newydd (Wrexham) Depot in North Wales from where she operated on rural lines in the North and Central Wales area. She remained there until July 1965 when she was withdrawn from traffic and by January 1966 had been moved to Messrs. Woodham Brothers yard in Barry, South Wales where she awaited being cut up for scrap. The service mileage recorded between 1954 and 1965 is 317,000 with the last three years being estimated.

 

80080 remained in Woodhams Yard for 14 years succumbing to the ravages weather, metal thieves, and later preservationists removing parts. When the locomotive was purchased in Autumn 1980 all non ferrous and motion parts were missing and she was no more than a skeletal hulk. 80080 left Barry Yard on 4th November 1980 and arrived at Matlock, the then headquarters of Peak Rail, two days later.
Restoration to working order took 7 years and was completed in October 1987 at the Midland Railway, Butterley, where the owning group had moved the locomotive in 1983. Passed for main line running she clocked up 37,000 miles up to December 1997 travelling to many parts of the country, all by rail.

My thanks to http://www.prclt.co.uk/New_80080_restoration.htm for the notes above. The pictures as usual are my own.

As always many thanks to our preserved railways in the above http://www.eastlancsrailway.org.uk/