Mystery donor steams to rescue of Railway Children loco with £200,000 gift

The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway has begun the long awaited restoration of steam locomotive No 5775 after receiving a gift of £200,000 from a private donor.

The engine is best known for its appearance in the classic 1970 film The Railway Children, which starred Jenny Agutter, Bernard Cribbins and Lionel Jeffries, who also directed the film.

The funding has allowed the railway to bring forward work on the locomotive, which was built in 1929 at the Great Western Railway Swindon Works and has been out of service for a quarter of a century.

Its role in The Railway Children helped cement its place in British cultural history, introducing generations of audiences to the sights and sounds of steam railways through one of the most enduring family films ever made.

It had been hoped that the engine would be ready for 2029 its 100th anniversary, but that’s looking a “bit tight” said marketing officer Tom Marshall.

"The project has been going for a couple of years. It’s in bits, stripped down. We are aiming for three or four years but it depends how it goes back together."

He said the fundraising team had been “working with the gentleman for a while” but to the wider team of volunteers it had come as a “very pleasant” surprise.

No 5775 is a six wheeled pannier tank engine with a rich and varied working life. It spent its early years operating across South Wales on Great Western Railway routes before being withdrawn by British Railways in 1963. It was then sold to London Transport where it became L89 and worked on engineering and maintenance trains across the capital.

In 1970 the engine was saved for preservation and moved to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.

On arrival in West Yorkshire it was repainted in the fictional livery of the Great Northern and Southern Railway for its appearance in The Railway Children, becoming one of the most recognisable locomotives in British cinema. A stage production of The Railway Children at Oxenhope station, attracted an audience of 35,000 last summer during Bradford’s City of Culture year.

The locomotive was withdrawn from service in 1999 and spent many years in storage before returning to Haworth for assessment. The new funding, representing around a third or more of the total costs, means restoration work is now fully underway.

The boiler has been sent to specialist contractors Riley and Sons in Bury for comprehensive work, while axle boxes have been sent to the Severn Valley Railway for overhaul. A pattern has been created for a new cylinder block casting, with completion hoped for early this year.

When No 5775 returns to service it will wear its London Transport maroon livery and carry its final working number L89. Fran Hartley, co leader of the restoration project, said the donation had transformed the timetable for the work. “We are incredibly grateful for this generosity,” she said.