No. 78022 is one of 65 BR Standard Class 2 2-6-0 steam locomotives built for British Railways.
Operational history[]
No. 78022 was built at Darlington Works in May 1954 and was delivered new to Millhouses Depot in Sheffield where it remained until the shed closed in 1962. It was later allocated to the following depots: Doncaster, Stratford (London), March (Cambridgeshire), Barrow, Aintree and finally Lostock Hall (Preston) where it served as a station pilot.
It was withdrawn from traffic in February 1967 and was sent to the Woodham Brothers Scrapyard at Barry where it remained until June 1975.
Preservation[]
The Standard 4 Locomotive Society based on the Worth Valley Railway (later the Keighley Worth Valley Railway -KWVR) had previously purchased the Standard 4MT 4-6-0 No. 75078 from the Woodham Brothers and were looking to acquire a Standard 4MT 2-6-0 to complement No. 75078, but by the time they returned to Barry there were no suitable 4MT 2-6-0 engines available. Instead No. 78022 was chosen as a suitable alternative and was purchased for preservation.
No. 78022 arrived on the KWVR in June 1975 and was placed into storage while work on restoring No. 75078 was being completed. After laying untouched for 18 years, No. 78022 was eventually restored from scrapyard condition by 1993 and ran for several years becoming very popular with footplate crews.
No. 78022 was removed form service following the expiration of its boiler certificate at the end of 2000 and was placed on static display in the K&WVR museum at Oxenhope. In 2014, No. 78022 was removed from the museum and was moved into the workshops for an overhaul. Once the overhaul was finished, No. 78022 reentered service on the line in November 2018.
No. 78022 now operates regularly on the KWVR with its boiler ticket set to expire in 2028.
Trivia[]
- No. 78022 is one of four surviving examples of the BR Standard Class 2 2-6-0 left in preservation.
- No. 78022 was featured in the 2022 short film, "Full Steam Ahead with Francis Bourgeois".
Gallery[]
