Our saddle tank was built by Robert Stephenson's Locomotive Works in 1943 and given the works number 7086/43. WD5050 was delivered to 154 Railway Operating Company at Long Marston on 24th April 1943 in khaki livery, in readiness for the D-Day landings.
In August 1944 she was moved to the Longmoor Military railway and renumbered 75050. In December of that year she was shipped to France and she travelled in December of that year to the SNCB depot at Antwerp Dam. Utilised for local services over the next six moths she was then transferred to 155 Railway Workshops Company in May for wheel turning, returning to Antwerp, but this time the ‘south’ sheds.
On 19th February 1946 she was returned to the UK and was bought by Doncaster Amalgamated Colliery Ltd. She remained there, or close by, for 24 years bearing the number 35 for most of the time until she was moved to Askham Main colliery in 1970. For the next six years she saw little use being kept as spare engine. She was repainted in dark green livery in the mid Seventies and eventually sold to the Titanic Steamship Company in 1976, who sold it on to the Kent & East Sussex Railway in 1979. She was renumbered 27 and put on static display, firstly in red and latterly in Royal Blue.
The railway's other commitments meant that it was put at the back of the overhaul queue and it was finally sold to a private purchaser in 1995 and transferred to the Midland Railway Centre, Swanwick.
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