Nº 1378 0-6-0 ST Westminster

A Peckett 0-6-0 saddle tank locomotive, works number 1378, built in 1914 to a War Office order and delivered to Sir John Jackson on 6th November 1914 for use on the Larkhill Military Railway. It then moved to the Fovant Military Railway on Salisbury Plain. The locomotive is very much in keeping with the decorative style of Pecketts of that period, with the wide valanced smokebox front and much brass and copper bright work in keeping .

Westminster worked the F.M.R from its opening in 1915 until closure after the end of the First World War. I also spent some time on another Military Railway closeby. It was then sold to the Associated Portland Cement Company for use at their Houghton Regis (Dunstable) site. It later moved to A.P.C’s Shipton-on-Cherwell site. Boiler certificates dated October 1966 and November 1968 show it to have been in use as A.P.C’s N°5 at Kiddlington Works in Oxfordshire. When it was no longer required, it was sold into private ownership, having several homes including the Kent & East Sussex Railway before they opened.

Latterly Westminster was to be found on a short length of private track at the old station at East Tisted, Hampshire. The station, now a private house is surrounded by new housing necessitating the use of a 200 Ton crane to lift the locomotive over the roof of the station buildings and on to a low loader for the journey to Northampton, where it arrived on 27^th October 1998.

Westminster arrives on a low loader at Bridge 11 ready for unloading.

This splendid photograph, taken sometime during the First World War
shows Westminster in new condition on the Larkhill Military Railway.
Photograph courtesy of Fuller, Amesbury. 

Last Amended: 14-Feb-2006

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