Swanage Railway's final appeal to restore T3 class locomotive

The locomotive is being painted Drummond Green with brown borders and a lining of black and white

A final appeal to complete the restoration of a Victorian steam locomotive has been launched.

Swanage Railway in Dorset needs to raise £85,000 to return the London and South Western Railway T3 class locomotive to full working order.

This is the final step of a £600,000 project after it was donated to Swanage Railway Trust by the National Railway Museum in 2017.

Organisers are aiming to have the engine back in steam by spring.

The group's treasurer Steve Doughty said organisers understood times were financially challenging for people, but they hoped this final fundraising appeal would lead to the completion of the work.

The National Railway Museum donated the T3 to the Swanage Railway Trust in 2017

The engine is currently being painted in the locomotive livery of the London and South Western Railway.

Built in 1893, it was not scrapped along with the rest of the class as it was selected for display at London's Waterloo station centenary in 1948.

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

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

"Seeing the T3 hauling trains through the beautiful Isle of Purbeck and past the dramatic ruins of Corfe Castle will be an amazing sight not seen in the area for almost a century," Mr Doughty said.

Work on the locomotive is being carried out by specialist contractors at the Flour Mill workshops in the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire, and at the Swanage Railway's Herston engineering works on the outskirts of Swanage