A Historical Record of Locomotive No 45163

 

The locomotive was built by Armstrong Whitworth Limited at Newcastle in July 1935 for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway to William Stanier’s highly successful mixed traffic 4-6-0 design. This class of engine eventually numbered 842 examples and, because of their black livery, became widely known as "Black 5’s". They were extremely versatile machines and were equally at home handling anything from a short pick up goods train to mainline passenger trains. This is born out by the fact that many survived in service right up to the last day of B.R. steam in August 1968.

 

Number 45163 spent the majority of its working life in Scotland and North West England before being withdrawn from Carlisle Kingmoor shed in May 1965. 45163 was then fortunate in becoming one of the many engines purchased for scrap by Woodhams of Barry, South Wales. Fortunate, that is, because as is widely known, the scrapping of redundant wagons took precedence over the large stock of rusting steam locomotives, until all had been saved for preservation. Number 45163 was one of the later departures, leaving the yard in January 1987 after having spent nearly 22 years there. The locomotive was moved to the Hull headquarters of the Humberside Locomotive Preservation Group where dismantling and restoration commenced.

 

Early in 1991 it was discovered that the locomotive was to be put up for sale and negotiations took place to secure the engine for the Colne Valley Railway. This was an opportunity that had been long awaited, as the Colne Valley Railway was at that time one of the few well established preserved railways not to have any ex B.R. steam locomotives. The locomotive was moved in its various dissmantled parts from Hull to the Colne Valley Railway in 1993.