Steam Locomotives: Exhibit No. 2
No. 86 0-6-0 Saddle Tank
Cylinders: 2 (10" diameter × 18" stroke)
Track gauge: 1 metre
Built by: Peckett & Sons of Bristol in 1934. Works No. 1871
Working life: Together with No. 85, No. 86 was the second of the pair of similar locomotives delivered new to Wellingborough Iron Company Ltd in 1934 in the same livery, and she worked in the same Finedon quarries, north-east of Sidegate Lane. She was given the number 86 in 1962 by Stewarts & Lloyds Minerals Ltd. Her whole working life was also spent in this quarry system until closure in 1966.
History to date: In June 1967, No. 86 was sold to a local industrialist, the late Mr John R. Billows, and was moved to the Pytchley Road Industrial Estate at Kettering.
In June 1975 it was moved to Hunsbury Hill, Northampton, on loan to the Northamptonshire Ironstone Railway Trust.
Following years of storage, the locomotive was offered to the Irchester Narrow Gauge Railway Trust on the understanding that restoration to working order would be carried out.
No. 86 arrived at Irchester on 23 February 1991 and has been undergoing restoration work since then. It passed its steam insurance test on 12 October 2001 and travelled under its own steam for the first time in 35 years on 16 December 2001.
The photograph here (© K.C.H. Farey) shows No. 86 in action during its working life. The photograph was taken on 6 December 1966.
Click here for another photograph of No. 86.