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  • Class: O, rebuilt as O1
  • Designer: James Stirling, 1878, rebuilt Harry Wainwright
  • Wheels: 0-6-0
  • Built: 1896, Ashford Works – Rebuilt 1908
  • Numbers Carried: 65, A65, 1065, 31065
  • Returned To Service: 15 July 2017
  • Previously Operational: 5 August 1999 to 7 July 2009
  • Owned By: The Bluebell Railway Trust

Built at Ashford as an ‘O’ class locomotive to a design already 18 years old, it received a rebuild to class ‘O1’ in 1908, and ran on until finally withdrawn in 1961. In 1963 it was obtained by the late Mr Lewis-Evans and kept at Ashford Steam Centre until its closure. for the following 20 years its whereabouts became something of a mystery (with boiler, frames and tender separated) until it was brought back together at the Bluebell Railway for overhaul, and was returned to steam for the centenary of the amalgamation of the SER and the LCDR in August 1999.

0-6-0s were the commonest locomotives in this country, and the Bluebell now hosts a sequence of three unique survivors of this type, demonstrating their development through the first half of the 20th century, from the O1 through the SECR C-class to Maunsell’s Q-class built by the Southern Railway.

The Bluebell’s spare O1/H boiler was overhauled at The Flour Mill workshop, and has now been fitted in place of its previous boiler during the recent overhaul, which took place at Sheffield Park. The locomotive was purchased from the family of the late owner by the Bluebell Railway Trust in December 2021.

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