Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Trust is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation which owns a unique collection of steam locomotives and carriages previously owned by the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway over 100 years ago.
Registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales with Registration Number 1157071, the origins of the Trust go back to 1964 when a group of enthusiasts in Rochdale established the L&Y Saddletanks Fund.
Our locomotives are located at preserved railways in Lancashire and Yorkshire, Pug 51218 at the Worth Valley, Pug 19 and Saddletank 752 at East Lancashire Railway at Bury. Restoration of 752 is complete and it returned to public service in early March 2020. 51218 was intended to be the next restoration project before the Coronavirus lockdown closed preserved railways, it is being preceded by Pug 19, which was relocated from the Ribble Steam Railway at Preston to the East Lancashire Railway in January 2020 for evaluation and restoration, which is now completed and it entered public service for its first ever time with a passenger train during an event at the East Lancashire Railway on 18th and 19th June 2022. |
Our carriages are normally on public display in the Exhibition Shed on the Worth Valley at Oxenhope when they are not in use, but this is not always possible due to operational requirements – in fact they were used on public service for a number of weekends during the Summer each year. In October 2020 our Brake Carriage 1474 was taken by road for repair work at the Bury works of the East Lancashire Railway, but has now returned to the Worth Valley Railway for public use with our other three carriages on the Vintage Trains Sunday services in June and July 2022, and on 19th June 2022 all of our 4 carriages were hauled by an ex-L&YR loco for the first time, ‘Ironclad’ 957 currently running as British Railways 52044. The 2024 Vintage Trains ran on a number of weekends in July and August featuring our carriages, these are likely to be repeated in 2025 but details are not known at the time of writing (September 2024) when known more details will be given on our website and the Worth Valley website – click here (opens in new window) Both our operational steam locomotives saw extensive use in the East Lancashire Railway Autumn Steam Gala 13th to 15th October 2023 and is likely to be repeated in a similar Gala 11th to 13th October 2024. Not on public display is the body of an L&YR family saloon which was threatened with destruction and we helped to rescue in 2019, in March 2022 this was moved from secure private storage by its private owner to storage away from public display onto a former wagon chassis at the East Lancashire Railway whilst options for its restoration are evaluated. |