Operational Steam Engines
Kitson Austin 1
This fine looking engine made its first appearance at Isfield in late 2002 to help with the steaming duties along side Blackie. She’s a humble 0-6-0 saddle tank built in 1932 at the Kitson and Co works in Leeds; she is one of three Austin’s built and remains the sole survivor to this day. The reason for being called Austin 1 is the fact that she was delivered brand new at the Austin motor works in the midlands and was adopted the name from the owners and staff at the works.
After working all its life at the Austin motor works in Longbridge she was finally rescued in the autumn of 1973 and was purchased by the Burtonwood Brewery on behalf of the Flint and Deeside Railway Society. After a short spell out of traffic she was back to working condition and renamed the Burtonwood brewer in honour of the brewer who had paid for the restoration and fitting of vacuum brakes. She was then transported to the Llangollen railway in North Wales where she played a key role in the running of the line as she was the only working steam engine at the railway for some time! In 1994 after running for many years at the Llangollen railway as one of only three working engines she was leased out to the Churnet valley railway, then the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway where she was finally taken out of traffic for a full overhaul ready for the next few years of hiring.
By 2002 she was completed and freshly painted into great western colours lined in red to represent the Llangollen railway and finally found her way to the lavender line in late 2002. It was decided at the time that just one steam motive power wasn’t enough to cope with the running of steam every weekend, so the decision was made to hire in Austin 1 to work along side our resident loco Blackie. Together they managed to keep steam motive power running for 75% of Sundays in a month leaving just one day a month for diesels!
Austin 1 stayed at Isfield for 5 years working almost without fault and really proved to be an extremely reliable and economical engine. But by the autumn of 2007 her boiler ticket was out of date and she made her long journey back to Llangollen where she’s in the middle of a complete overhaul. It is hoped this reliable and much loved engine will make a return at some point in 2011 and take over the duties of Birkenhead in providing steam power.
Update
‘Austin 1’ returned to the Lavender line in the spring of 2011 after a complete overhaul at her home sheds in Llangollen. After a series of trial runs at the Llangollen railway in Wales ‘Austin 1’ was placed straight into service replacing Birkenhead in all steam duties. She can be seen on all Clive Grooms footplate courses and all Lavender line steam days throughout 2012.
