Marston, Thompson and Evershed 0-4-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class 3 (Locobase 8023)

Data from Great Central Railway's website's listing of the museum road's locomotives -- [], accessed 22 December 2006; and Foxfield's Virtual Stocklist entry for this engine -- []. See also Sam Hewitt, "From the archive: Five decades of the Foxfield Railway" archived at [], last accessed 21 September 2022. Works number was 3581 in 1924.

The RM site explains that the Burton-on-Trent brewery in the title operated the 3 until 1967, when it was sold to the Foxfield Light Railway and entered heritage train service. During the 1970s, the FLR transferred the 3 and other locomotives to the Great Central's Railway Vehicles Preservation Ltd at Loughborough. It was later returned to the Foxfield Light Railway in 1996 for restoration.

Foxfield's Virtual Stocklist entry for this engine -- [] -- says that MTE bought 4 of these engines over a nearly 30-year period and that HL built 274 to essentially the same design from 1905 to 1950. The site comments that MTE liked this design quite a bit, and adds: "Like most of the motive power at the breweries in Burton, "Marston Thompson & Evershed No3" and its stablemates were kept in immaculate condition, and were even housed in a heated shed when not being used."

Their service was the usual industrial activity, moving freight cars to support the brewery's production, but, the account notes, "... rail traffic contracted severely during the 1960s, making all the locos redundant."

After a long restoration at the FLR, the 3 emerged in December 2021.and re-entered service in June 2022.