Following a break in work due to the coronavirus, Locomotive Maintenance Services, based at Loughborough, has resumed work on steam locomotive No. 1340 ‘Trojan’.

The veteran locomotive, based at the Didcot Railway Centre, is expected to return to steam later in 2020.

Current work has focussed on fitting the firebox stays, all 308 of them, for the new inner firebox.

Credit: Didcot Railway Centre

The replacement stays have been produced by LMS using CNC machining methods. Once in place, each stay will need caulking and riveting.

1340 is the oldest steam locomotive in the operational fleet at the Didcot Railway Centre. It was built by Avonside Engine Company in 1897 for Messrs Dunn & Shute of Newport Town Dock.

The locomotive was purchased by the Alexandra Docks Railway in 1903 and was transferred to Great Western Railway when the ADR was absorbed by the GWR in the 1923 grouping.

Credit: Didcot Railway Centre

Trojan was numbered 1340 during the grouping and remained with GWR until 1932, when it was sold to Netherseal Colliery at Burton on Trent.

The engine arrived at the Didcot Railway Centre in 1968, but it wasn’t until 2002 that she entered service in preservation, and was a regular performer until being withdrawn in 2011.