HISTORY was made at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre (BRC) on December 11 when GWR Hawksworth ‘Modified Hall’ No. 6989 Wightwick Hall became the 150th ex-Barry Scrapyard locomotive to be restored and returned to steam.

No. 6989 made its first tentative moves in preservation on the centre’s demonstration line with BRC commercial director Adrian Aylward on the regulator.

The loco was coupled to the borrowed tender belonging to Swindon & Cricklade Railway-based classmate No. 6984 Owsden Hall.

The occasion was actually the official steam test of No. 6989, which it successfully passed before making several runs on the short running line.

It marked a major milestone in the 6989 Wightwick Hall Restoration Group’s restoration of the 1948-built 4-6-0, coming almost 41 years after the loco first arrived at Quainton Road in January 1978.

Read more in the January 2019 issue of The RM – on sale January 2!
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