NCB1 Haydock 0-6-0T No. 'Haydock'
Havenstreet, Isle of Wight, UK 		Location: Isle of Wight Steam Railway
Status: Display
Abbreviation Expansion English
1 NCB National Coal Board National Coal Board
Posted: Feb 1, 2024 @ 15:02:32 by Russell Newman
With its time on display at the former Penrhyn Castle Industrial Railway Museum, now over, the 145 year old, former NCB Haydock, Robert Stephenson & Co. built 0-6-0T Works No. 2309 "Haydock", has relocated to its new home at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, at Havenstreet on the Isle of Wight, having been gifted to them by the National Trust. The locomotive feels in an important gap in the Island collection, representing the type of locomotive used in the construction period of the Island railways. It is of the same design of locomotive Freshwater, used in construction of the Freshwater, Newport & Yarmouth Railway. Built by Robert Stephenson in 1879, works number 2309 (Freshwater was works number 2383) it was initially a contractor’s locomotive, and is known to have been utilised on a North Eastern Railway construction contract near Bolton Percy around 1903. It was later acquired by Richard Evans & Co, owners of the Haydock collieries, and for many years was employed shunting their timber wharf on the Manchester Ship canal at Acton Grange, as well as in the collieries at St Helens. Acton Grange wharf was several miles from the Haydock site, and apparently the engine would work under its own steam over main line metals between the two sites when required – it still carries its Railway Executive registration plate. It passed to the National Coal Board in 1947, and from 1952 remained working at Acton Grange until rail operations ceased in 1963. It was stored at the NCB Central Workshops from 1963 until 1966 when presented to the National Trust and taken to Penrhyn Castle. "Haydock" will be placed on display in the Train Story Museum, at Havenstreet Station.