British Aluminium’s memorable Fife locomotive to get restored

The new fundraising campaign of Fife Heritage Railway to restore a locomotive which spent decades on the Kingdom has reached its target.

The Leven based group has come down to an agreement with the Scottish Railway Preservation Society for loan and restoration of the steam locomotive, Andrew Barclay 2046, British Aluminium Company No.3.

On its fundraising page, the group has already managed to reach the £1200 target, which will let the locomotive to be shifted to Fife.

Andrew Barclay Sons & Co. of Kilmarnock built this locomotive for the British Aluminium Company in 1937. On the same year, it was delivered directly to the Bauxite reduction works in Burntisland, where it spent its entire working life, up to the time the company invested in Fowler diesel locomotives in 1971 when it was kept grounded as a reserve for any emergency requirement.

In 1989 the locomotive was donated to the SRPS in 1989, but there it was stranded in open-air storage. Andrew Barclay designed the smallest standard gauge with only 10-inch diameter cylinders. There are only six of these designs existing in the UK.

The Fife Heritage Railway had admitted a ten-year loan for the restorative refurbishment of the locomotive and displays it with other historical railway items with a history in Fife.

A group member Jim Rankin said “We are really excited about repatriating this loco back to Fife. It may take us a wee while to completely cosmetically do the work but I am hopeful it can be on show during 2020.”