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The 82045 Steam Locomotive Trust

The 82045 Steam Locomotive Trust

The 82045 Steam Locomotive Trust is in the process of building the next member of the extinct Riddles BR 3MT 2‑6‑2 82000 tank class. Unlike many of the current new build projects, which are aiming to recreate larger main-line types, the new loco is intended specifically for heritage line use.

It has been suggested that this type could be an ideal candidate for limited series production. While the Trust say that this is well beyond their own scope, they believe that making the breakthrough with 82045 could encourage others to take over in the future. Batch production would drastically reduce the unit cost of building new 82000's, estimated at between £1,250,000 and £1,500,000 for 82045.

Success with this project would also open the door to the recreation of the elegant Riddles Class 3 77000 mogul, another long-lost type which is eminently well suited to service on today's heritage lines.

The driving force behind the 82045 project is the conviction that the days of working steam are numbered without an initiative of this kind: even the most recently-built of existing BR Standard locomotives are now over 50 years old, with all the attendant problems of maintenance and repair that this will increasingly cause their owners. It seems hardly feasible that the current fleet will continue to be able to run day-to-day services in another 50 (and probably far fewer) years, but their lives will certainly be prolonged if they work alongside new engines that can shoulder some of the burden.

Patron: HRH The Duke of Gloucester

82045 in best ex-Works pose! By Lancashire artist Jonathan Clay. The 82XXX class were the only BR Standard tank locomotives to carry more than one livery. Although all of them were originally turned out in lined black, those examples that worked on the Western Region were repainted in green after overhaul.The engines looked equally smart lined out in either livery, rather less so in the unlined green carried latterly by a number of examples.

As 82045 was destined for the WR had it been built as planned in 1956, it was decided that the loco when finished should appear in the attractive Swindon-inspired livery of dark green, lined out in orange and black. A subsequent repaint into lined black hasn't been ruled out, though.

 

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