88 to star at Open Day


© SDRT

The Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust is pleased to announce that the star of the show on its April 27 Spring Open Day at Washford will once again be ex-Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway heavy freight locomotive No 88. The engine is scheduled to give demonstrations of tablet catching using the Somerset & Dorset Trust's historic Whittaker tablet catching apparatus. (For details of the apparatus, click here)

88 (BR 53808), owned by the Trust, normally operates service trains on the West Somerset Railway, and has recently been helping to operate Severn Valley Railway trains following their reinstatement after last year's disastrous floods.

Also on view at Washford that day will be the saddle tank Kilmersdon. Kilmersdon was the last surviving locomotive to work in the Somerset coalfield, and is part of the Trust's Museum at Washford, which houses an unrivalled collection of memorabilia of the much missed Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway.

Godfrey Baker, the Trust's chairman, said: "This is a golden opportunity for visitors to our museum to get really close to a full-size steam loco, and we look forward to welcoming friends old and new".

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