Monday 17 November 2014

Industrial Action - An unsympathetic rebuild…

The ICI rebuild of former Avonside 0-4-0ST RS8 (works no.1913 of 1923) is displayed at the National Stone Centre, 1/3/14I.C.I. Ltd's 1960 rebuild of Avonside Engine Co Ltd 0-4-0ST RS8 (works no.1913 of 1923), 1/3/14

This monstrosity, displayed at the National Stone Centre in Wirksworth started out as an 0-4-0ST built by the Avonside Engine Co Ltd of Bristol in 1923 as works no.1913.

The ICI rebuild of former Avonside 0-4-0ST RS8 (works no.1913 of 1923) is displayed at the National Stone Centre, 1/3/14The rear view…

Buffer casting displaying the Avonside Engine Co Ltd name, 1/3/14The Avonside name cast into one of the buffers.

As far as I am aware it spent the majority of its working life at Tunstead Quarry in Derbyshire where it carried the number RS8. When steam working at the quarry ceased in 1960 it was converted to diesel power with hydraulic transmission (making it an 0-4-0DH) at the I.C.I. Ltd's South Central Workshops at Tunstead and continued to work there until 1974 when it entered preservation with the Bahamas Locomotive Society at the Dinting Railway Centre.

Upon Dinting's closure it was put on display in the car park of the National Stone Centre beside of the trackbed of the Cromford & High Peak Railway, now known as the High Peak Trail.

I've been unable to track down a photo of RS8 before it suffered its rebuild but would imagine that it bore more than a passing resemblance to this…

Avonside Engine Co Ltd 0-4-0ST DORA (works no.1973 of 1927) at the Rutland Railway Museum, 29/8/99Avonside Engine Co Ltd 0-4-0ST DORA (works no.1973 of 1927) at the Rutland Railway Museum, 29/8/99

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