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 Pendennis Castle in 1977 | |||||||||||||||
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GWR 4073 "Castle" Class No. 4079 Pendennis Castle is a 4-6-0 steam locomotive built in 1924 for the Great Western Railway (GWR) at Swindon Works to a design of Charles Collett. It was employed on long-distance express passenger trains on the GWR and its successor, British Railways' Western Region.
Pendennis Castle gained initial notoriety in 1925, when it outperformed rival engines during trials on the London and North Eastern Railway. It was bought for preservation in 1964 after covering 1.75 million miles in revenue earning service. In 1977, it was sold to Hamersley Iron, based in Western Australia, where it was shipped in the following year and operated until 1994. Upon returning to England in 2000, the engine awaited restoration at Didcot Railway Centre, its new base, which took volunteers 16 years to complete. In August 2021, Pendennis Castle returned to steam for the first time in 27 years, and will run on heritage railways across Britain.