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Shannon is a steam locomotive, built in 1857 George England and Co. for the Sandy and Potton Railway and now preserved at the Didcot Railway Centre.
The locomotive was built in 1857 by George England and Co. of New Cross for the Sandy and Potton Railway, at a cost of £800. [1] The railway was promoted by Captain Sir William Peel VC, whose estate lay between those towns, and the locomotive was named after his ship, the frigate HMS Shannon. In 1862 it was sold to the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) for shunting at Crewe Works and numbered 1104. The LNWR also briefly trialled it on the Cromford and High Peak Railway. [2] It was renumbered 1863 in 1872.
In 1878 it was sold to the Wantage Tramway for £365 8s 1d where it became No 5, and was known as 'Jane' although the name was never actually carried. It was initially fitted with full tramway skirts, but these were removed after a few years. After closure of the tramway in 1945 it was purchased for £100 by the Great Western Railway and the name 'Shannon' was reapplied. It was preserved as a static exhibit on Wantage Road railway station until that closed in 1964. In 1965 it was stored on the premises of the Atomic Energy Authority, but in 1969 it was moved to the Didcot Railway Centre, where it was finally steamed and operated again in October 1969. [3]
No. 5 Shannon is part of the UK National Collection of railway locomotives (Object No.1978-7013). In 1975 it took part in the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in steam, but had to be retired soon afterwards due to a crack in the firebox tubeplate.
When first restored at Didcot, No. 5 was painted in Great Western Railway colours, which is how it appeared on the tramway following repair at Swindon in the 1930s. This also accounts for several GWR fittings on the locomotive. More recently, it has been repainted in lined maroon, in an approximation of the first livery carried when on the tramway.[ citation needed ]
Potton is a town and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England, about 10 miles (16 km) east of the county town Bedford. The parish had a population in 2021 of 5,727. In 1783 the Great Fire of Potton destroyed a large part of the town. The parish church dates from the 13th century, and is dedicated to St Mary. Potton's horse fairs were some of the largest in the country.
The Stratford and Moreton Tramway was a 16-mile (25-km) long horse-drawn wagonway which ran from the canal basin at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire to Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire, with a branch to Shipston-on-Stour. The main line opened in 1826, whilst the branch to Shipston opened in 1836.
A Crampton locomotive is a type of steam locomotive designed by Thomas Russell Crampton and built by various firms from 1846. The main British builders were Tulk and Ley and Robert Stephenson and Company.
Didcot Railway Centre is a railway museum and preservation engineering site in Didcot, Oxfordshire, England. The site was formerly a Great Western Railway engine shed and locomotive stabling point.
The first Locomotives of the Great Western Railway (GWR) were specified by Isambard Kingdom Brunel but Daniel Gooch was soon appointed as the railway's Locomotive Superintendent. He designed several different 7 ft 1⁄4 in broad gauge types for the growing railway, such as the Firefly and later Iron Duke Class 2-2-2s. In 1864 Gooch was succeeded by Joseph Armstrong who brought his standard gauge experience to the workshops at Swindon. To replace some of the earlier locomotives, he put broad gauge wheels on his standard gauge locomotives and from this time on all locomotives were given numbers, including the broad gauge ones that had previously carried just names.
Grove is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It was part of Berkshire until it was transferred in the 1974 boundary changes.
5051 Drysllwyn Castle is a Great Western Railway (GWR) Castle Class locomotive built at Swindon Works in May 1936 and named after Dryslwyn Castle. It is owned by the Didcot Railway Centre.
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Didcot Parkway is a railway station serving the town of Didcot in Oxfordshire, England. The station was opened as Didcot on 12 June 1844 and was renamed Didcot Parkway on 29 July 1985 by British Rail, to reflect its role as a park and ride railhead. It is 53 miles 10 chains down the line from London Paddington and is situated between Cholsey to the east and Swindon to the west.
The 1361 Class were small 0-6-0ST steam locomotives built by the Great Western Railway at their Swindon Works, England, mainly for shunting in docks and other sidings where track curvature was too tight for large locomotives.
The Varsity Line was the main railway line that linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated by the London and North Western Railway.
Great Western Railway (GWR) 6000 Class 6023 King Edward II is a preserved steam locomotive.
Kitson and Company was a locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.
7027 Thornbury Castle was built in August 1949. Its first shed allocation was Plymouth Laira. Its March 1959 shed allocation was Old Oak Common. Its last shed allocation was Reading. It was withdrawn in December 1963 and arrived at Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, South Wales in May 1964. The locomotive was not scrapped and was being restored in 2022.
George England and Co. was an early English manufacturer of steam locomotives founded by the engineer George England of Newcastle upon Tyne (1811–1878). The company operated from the Hatcham Iron Works in New Cross, Surrey, and began building locomotives in 1848.
The steam rail motors (SRM) were self-propelled carriages operated by the Great Western Railway in England and Wales from 1903 to 1935. They incorporated a steam locomotive within the body of the carriage.
Potton was a railway station on the Varsity Line which served the small town of the same name in Bedfordshire. Opened in 1857 as part of Sir William Peel's Sandy and Potton Railway, the station was initially situated further south near the Biggleswade Road. Upon being taken over by the Bedford and Cambridge Railway in 1862 a new station was opened which remained in service for over one hundred years before closing in 1968. The station building has survived and is now a private house.
The Wantage Tramway Company was a two-mile tramway that carried passengers and freight between the Oxfordshire town of Wantage and Wantage Road Station on the Great Western Main Line in England. Formed in 1873 to link Wantage Road station with its terminus at Mill Street, Wantage the line was cheaply built parallel to what was then the Besselsleigh Turnpike, and now the A338. The tramway closed to passengers in 1925 and to goods traffic in 1945.
Lambton Colliery Railway No.29 is a preserved 0-6-2 tank locomotive built by Kitson and Company for the Lambton Colliery network in 1904. It was the first 0-6-2T to be employed on that system, and it was later joined by No.5. No.29 was designed to work between Philadelphia and Sunderland. In February 1969, No.29 was withdrawn from service and placed into dead storage. The following year, the locomotive was purchased by volunteers from the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and it was restored to working order. As of 2023, the locomotive remains operational on the NYMR.