Steam Railways in Preservation in the 1980-90s
August 26 – September 2 1988
‘Standard 4MT No.80104’
Standard 4MT No.80104 departs Swanage for restoration at Swindon.
The Port Line Locomotive Project’s Standard 4MT 2-6-4T locomotive No 80104, based at the Swanage Railway, has been moved to the Heritage Centre Swindon, where it will be restored to full working condition before returning to the Swanage Railway to haul trains on the expanding line.
No.80104 was rescued from the Barry sidings in 1984 and during its time at Swanage, the deterioration was halted whilst awaiting restoration. The locomotive is owned by the Port Line Locomotive Project, but the Swanage based Southern Steam Trust holds a large percentage of shares in the engine. It is intended that 80104 will operate permanently on the Swanage line following the completion of restoration.
Built at Brighton in 1954, the locomotive was initially allocated to Plaistow (33A) on the Eastern Region and spent the first six years of its life hauling intensive commuter services out of Fenchurch Street to Tilbury (Riverside), Shoeburyness and Southend (Central). The Standard 4MT tanks were displaced from those services in 1961.
The class is not a newcomer to Swanage, with engines of that type having worked the line between 1963 and 1967, indeed the last example to work to Corfe Castle and Swanage was on Sunday, 18th June 1967, when No.80146, a one-time regular on the line, worked a 10-coach RCTS tour train to Swanage.
BR 2-6-4T Class 4MT No. 80104
BR Standard Class 4 80104 was bought by the Southern Steam Trust and displayed in the headshunt at Swanage in September 1984 after a cosmetic restoration, and stayed there for a number of years.
After a long restoration the locomotive entered regular service in 1997.
Photo – Date August 2003, Author Andrew Hackney, Licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license
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