Stanier LMS Black Five 44806 at Pickering North Yorkshire Moors Railway

Caught earlier this year at Pickering. 44806 was an

 early candidate for preservation, moving directly from

 BR to the "Steamtown" collection at Carnforth, housed

 in the same loco depot where steam's final fires

 had been dropped shortly before.

 

 

Black Five 44806 built at Derby in 1944. In preservation

she was also unusually well-travelled between museums

 and lines, although staying in the North West of England.

 

In 1973, 44806 was based for a short time at the newly

 reopened Lakeside and Haverthwait Railway, as their

largest and only tender engine. Whilst at Haverthwaite,

 44806 was adopted by the ITV children's TV series

 Magpie and named "Magpie". The Magpie programme

 was always in competition with the BBC's comparable

 Blue Peter, who had earlier adopted the LNER A2

Peppercorn 532 Blue Peter, conveniently built

under that name.

 

A crack was found in the boiler, in the outer firebox.

 Haverthwaite did not have the workshop facilities for

 an engine of this length or weight, so she was moved

 yet again, this time to "Steamport" in Southport. These

were busy times for the British steam preservation

movement, with many new projects and scrapyard

 rescues all competing for attention, time and money.

As a result, 'Magpie' languished. In 1983, with a wind

down of Steamport owing to pressure over the site,

Magpie moved to Manchester and the Museum of Science

and Industry, as a purely static exhibit. In 1993, 44806 and

 her 20-year old firebox crack travelled to the Llangollen

Railway,where repair work began. This work took almost

 three years to complete, with a return to steam on 15th

 September1995. She worked on the Llangollen for nearly

ten years, first back as 4806 in black LMS livery with red

lining, then once again as 44806 wearing the BR

"ferret and a dartboard" tender badges with red

 and white lining.

 

44806 was one of the last locomotives to be withdrawn

 from service, surviving until 1968, the last year of steam

 on British Railways. Since her initial preservation, 44806

 had been privately owned by one man, Ken Aldcroft, who

 sadly died in 2003. The 40th anniversary of the end of

British Railways steam and of 44806's own preservation.

 came in 2008.  In July 2013, the locomotive was offered

 for sale, and has been purchased by the North Yorkshire

 Moors Railway. At the NYMR, it is destined to be certified

 to run to Whitby after it overhaul in 2017.

 

Many thanks to Wikipedia for some of the above notes.

 

and of course to http://www.nymr.co.uk/