Swanage Railway appeals to restore T3 class locomotive

No 563 was donated to the Swanage Railway by the National Railway Museum in 2017

An appeal to restore a Victorian steam locomotive has been launched by a heritage railway line.

Swanage Railway in Dorset hopes to raise £350,000 to return the London and South Western Railway T3 class locomotive to full working order.

The engine was donated to the line by the National Railway Museum in 2017.

A detailed inspection concluded it was in good enough condition to be fully restored. Swanage Railway described it as a "unique locomotive".

The T3 class locomotives hauled trains from London on the west of England main line, across Dorset and down to Corfe Castle and Swanage up to the 1940s.

They were credited for bringing city visitors to the Dorset coast.

'Unique project'

Built in 1893, No 563 was not scrapped along with the rest of the class as it was selected for display at London's Waterloo station centenary in 1948.

Matt McManus, of The Swanage Railway Trust, said: "This is one of the most exciting locomotive restoration projects of the last 25 years - a unique project that will bring a locomotive most people thought would never steam again back into life on the railway that it was built for.

"The T3 allows us to go right back to the very start of railways in Dorset. No 563 enables the Swanage Railway Trust to show how railways connected rural and coastal communities in the Victorian and Edwardian periods."

The Swanage to Wareham line was closed by British Rail in 1972 and ripped up, although part of it was re-opened as a tourist attraction in the 1990s.