Cockney Guest Stars At Keighley & Worth Valley’s ‘Autumn Steam-up’!

The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway (KWVR) is about to make a ‘capital gain’ – and they’re rather pleased about the prospect!

That’s because the West Yorkshire-based heritage railway has secured an historic 102-year-old locomotive that was specially built for service in our capital city, London, as a ‘guest’ engine for their Autumn Steam Up event on Friday, October 4th to Sunday, October 6th.

The cockney character that will be doing battle with the Keighley & Worth Valley railway’s demanding five-mile branch line is No.72 ‘Fenchurch’ who will be travelling north from the Sussex-based heritage Bluebell Railway to star in the proceedings.

This steamy little character is a locomotive originally built in 1872 for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway’s 11-mile suburban South London Line by engineer, William Stroudley. The stations along the route were often less than a mile apart and the railway company wanted a small powerful locomotive that could accelerate quickly between each stop.

No.72 was one of the first six examples produced at their Brighton headquarters and they were so successful that 50 engines were eventually constructed. It was preserved by the Bluebell Railway in 1964 and was last overhauled in January 2023.

Now this cheeky little chappie from London will join the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway’s home veteran steam and diesel fleet for a celebratory weekend that’s designed to appeal to both the family and railway fans.

On offer will be a special weekend timetable together with demonstration goods trains, double-headed trains when two locomotives are used to pull the same train and a chance to travel on historic brake-vans which were used for generations at the back of freight trains as a braking feature.

Kieran Pilsworth, one of the KWVR’s ‘Autumn Steam-up’ organisers, said:

“We’d like to thank the Bluebell Railway for making No.72 ‘Fenchurch’ available to us for the ‘Autumn Steam-up’ and we’re sure everybody’s going to love seeing what it can do on the Worth Valley gradients.

It’s something we believe will appeal to everybody, especially the children as it’s such an attractive, kid-sized locomotive.”

On Friday, October 4th ‘Fenchurch’ will be operating an exclusive three-train charter service, including a hot supper. Details of how to book for this rare train service, together with all the ‘Autumn Steam-up’ tickets can be found by going to the KWVR’s web site: www.kwvr.co.uk.