11th March, 2026
Taking place during Swanage Railway’s 50th anniversary year, the project marks a particularly significant milestone in the Railway’s story and reflects its continued commitment to safeguarding historic locomotives for future generations. Following an extensive engineering assessment of the locomotive, work has already commenced.
The T9 is owned by the NRM, which gifted T3 563 to the Swanage Railway in 2017. This agreement therefore builds on that established relationship. While 120 remains an asset of the National Collection, the Swanage Railway’s intention is to look after her as one of its own, such that Swanage can become her long-term home. 120 will not only become a key component of the SR’s motive power strategy going forward, but will also provide an operational locomotive from the NRM collection for the public to enjoy. The overhaul is expected to take around three years to complete.
Swanage Railway Chief Executive Officer Abbie King said: “Starting this project during our 50th anniversary year feels incredibly special. It is a moment to reflect on everything that has been achieved over the past five decades, while also looking ahead to the future of the Railway. Being able to share such an important part of our heritage with our local community and visitors as part of this anniversary year makes it all the more meaningful.”
She was overhauled at the Mid-Hants Railway in the early 1980s and then subsequently by the Flour Mill in the Forest of Dean. 30120 entered service on the Bodmin & Wenford Railway in 2010 before moving to Swanage as a resident in 2017. 30120 was retired from traffic in 2020 and has been awaiting overhaul since. With this announcement, the only surviving “Greyhound” gets the chance to run again – and building on the success of the T3 project, the 563 Locomotive Group has an established team ready to deliver this.
The overhaul of the T9 will be split between the Swanage Railway’s own works at Herston and the Flour Mill workshop in the Forest of Dean. The locomotive chassis will be tackled at Herston, whilst the Flour Mill will be focusing on the boiler and tender.
Swanage Railway Engineering Director and 563LG Chairman Nathan Au said, “Overhauling the chassis at Herston also helps us to maintain, develop and fund the essential engineering skills that we need in-house, while the Flour Mill undertakes the specialist boiler work that they are ideally placed to do. We have formed a great partnership with the Flour Mill thanks to 563, and the split of the 120’s chassis from the boiler across two sites will enable us to work in parallel to reduce the time to complete the overhaul.”
To deliver the overhaul that 120 deserves, the extensively repaired cylinder block will be replaced. This was successfully repaired in 2017 using a process called “cold stitching”. Although the block was still serviceable when the locomotive was withdrawn, the durability of this repair long term is unknown and is an obvious point of potential failure. To give 120 the best chances of not only steaming through this next ten-year boiler ticket but also surviving for future generations to enjoy, the Railway and the NRM have agreed that the block should be replaced as part of this overhaul.
The tender will also be thoroughly overhauled as so far as is known this has not been done since the locomotive was first preserved. This is an exciting project in its own right as it is the only example of an LSWR “Watercart” tender in preservation.
The cost of the overhaul is estimated at £750,000. Steam locomotive overhauls are however notoriously difficult to predict with any accuracy as not all components can be fully assessed until fully dismantled. That is a large amount of money to find, especially in the current climate, but we are pleased to report that we already have around half of that sum as a result of some very generous donations and a substantial bequest. Today’s announcement is thus made on firm foundations that enables work to start immediately, but with a need for further financial support.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Designed by William Adams’ successor Dugald Drummond, the LSWR Class T9 gained the nickname “Greyhounds” for their quick turn of speed. No.120 was built at Nine Elms Locomotive Works in 1899. It entered Southern Railway ownership in 1923 and was rebuilt with a superheater in 1927. Renumbered 30120 following nationalisation in 1948, it was allocated to various sheds throughout its lifespan including Guildford, Dorchester and Exmouth Junction and Eastleigh.
The locomotive would have worked semi-fast passenger duties on the Western Section of British Railways Southern Region, and it is highly likely to have worked the Swanage Branch on occasion during this time. Following initial withdrawal at Exmouth Junction in 1961, 30120 was repainted in LSWR green and hauled steam specials until final withdrawal as the last operational T9 in 1963, joining the National Collection.
For more information about the T9’s return to steam and T3 563 and how you can support the project, please visit https://563locomotivegroup.co.uk/ or contact Nathan Au, Chairman on 07725-330385 or by email nathan.au@swanagerailway.co.uk