East Lancashire Railway - Steam Department

03/08/2026

We’ve kept you waiting all weekend, time to announce our second guest locomotive for this year’s Autumn Steam Gala! 💨🍂

GWR Pannier Tank No. 7714 is making its very first visit to the ELR! 🤩

7714 will be joining our already announced visiting locomotive, S15 30506, alongside our home fleet lineup, with a further guest yet to be announced. We really can’t wait to see this Kerr Stuart-built workhorse heading through the Irwell Valley!

A massive thank you to the wonderful Severn Valley Railway and the SVR Pannier Tank Fund for making this possible, we always enjoy taking our engines to the SVR so it will be brilliant to host them at the ELR this time round

🎟️🎟️ More details will be added to the website along with tickets going on sale soon, keep your eye on our page for further updates: www.eastlancsrailway.org.uk/events-activities/autumn-steam-gala/

27/07/2026

We are delighted to announce our first guest locomotive for our Autumn Steam Gala! 💨🍂

Urie S15 No. 30506 will be heading to the East Lancashire Railway for the first time since 1993!🤩

30506 will be operating on an intensive timetable throughout the three day gala between 16-18th October 2026, starring alongside our home fleet locos as well as further guests to be announced soon!

We are very grateful to our friends at The Watercress Line and the Urie Locomotive Society for the loan of their locomotive.

🎟️🎟️ More details will be added to the website along with tickets going on sale soon, keep your eye on our page for further updates: www.eastlancsrailway.org.uk/events-activities/autumn-steam-gala/

24/07/2026

A restoration update on LMS 3F 16407/47324 🔧

Apologies for a lack of update on progress with 16407 but whilst it’s been quiet on here it’s been as busy as ever in the works at Bury! The running fleet has taken precedence but work has still continued on various jobs on the 3F….

- Slide bars fully aligned and fitted.
- Crosshead slipper blocks machined and fitted to suit the slide bars, the left hand little end pin was sent away for hardening. Both crosshead assemblies/slippers are now all complete.
- Eccentric straps have had several features machined on the horizontal borer, as well as fitted bolts being machined. The straps have now been split and are ready for white metalling.
- Both big ends have had their new bronzes fitted to the straps and are now ready for machining on the vertical borer.
- Gland packings are being made to suit soft packings, so new split bronze rings have been machined and fitted to both piston glands, the gland housings have also been machine and the cups lapped to the seating surface. The valve gland bushes have just required the bores filling with white metal and boring back out to suit the diameter of the valve rod.
- With glands fitted and being packed next week, the front end is now virtually complete, the cylinder end covers have been fitted with the new joints annealed, the valve chest cover is being left off ready for when we time the valve events.
- The front sandboxes were also removed whilst we got the chance as they were full of old sand and rust, so these got thoroughly shotblasted and have been painted up ready for refitting.
- The cab is in undercoat and new window castings have been polished up, new window catches and hinges have been cast in bronze and are awaiting machining.

The bottom end/motion is really not that far away now, work on the boiler will be recommencing very soon and we cannot wait to keep pushing with the overhaul and reunite the boiler with the frames!

We couldn’t do any of this without the massive effort from our dedicated volunteers and staff - To help support this major restoration on a well loved ELR loco, visit here: www.justgiving.com/campaign/ELR-Jinty

23/07/2026

Autumn Steam Gala 2026! 💨🍂

We are very excited that we will soon be announcing our guest locomotive lineup for this year’s Autumn Steam Gala between 16th-18th October!

Our gala team have been working very hard behind the scenes to secure up to three guest locomotives for our event, one of which visited the railway for a brief period in 1993 and hasn’t been back since! Whilst it’s a complete debut for the other TBA locos 👀

This Autumn event will prove to be our best yet, with highlights to include:

🍳 Brand new Breakfast Train on the Saturday and Sunday morning to start your day off right!
🛤️ Brake van rides throughout the event which will feature a variety of locos, including our special guests.
🌙 Soak up the atmosphere with steam running late into the evening on Saturday night.
📸 Autumn photo opportunities with shunting demonstrations and morning runpasts with a demonstration Goods train.
🐟 The ‘Irwell Valley Fryer’ makes a return on the Friday evening, with Fish and Chips served to your seat on the train!
🍺Real ale served on board, and our two pubs at Bury and Rawtenstall open throughout the event.

Plus lots more!

More details to be announced very soon along with tickets going on sale, please keep an eye on our social media and website for more details on this not to be missed steam event…

30/04/2026

An update on our running fleet as we head into May!…

LMS ‘Pug’ 11243 has returned back to the railway today after a successful trip away to our friends at the Severn Valley Railway. The loco completed just over 200 miles over its six running days there! - A couple of jobs including lapping the right hand clack valve and the left hand water valve were sorted and the loco made ready for three days in service during our Day out with Thomas event this weekend. The keen eyed amongst you will notice the Pug is now facing South for the first time!

34092 ‘City of Wells’ is in traffic as a core member of the fleet, our volunteers set on with cleaning the cladding and front end a couple of weeks ago following its weathered appearance at Legends of Steam III.

32 ‘Gothenburg’ has passed its annual cold and steam boiler exams, and has also been repainted into its Thomas blue for this year’s events starting this weekend.

L&Y ‘A Class’ 52322 has had a busy start to the year operating a number of service days and dining services, the loco remains in traffic but will be stopped briefly in the middle of May for a washout and annual boiler exams.

L&Y 752/LMS 11456 ran during our Legends of Steam event and also remains in traffic. We are hoping to announce this year’s L&Y running days following how popular they were last year, so the loco will be making appearances at those and other running days whenever possible.

Standard 4MT 80097 is waiting on springs to arrive for the piston packings, once these have arrived the Bury Std 4 group will reassemble the front end of the loco and make it fit for traffic for the Summer season.

15/04/2026

Legends of Steam III - What a memorable weekend! 🤩

Just a few of the many people that make our events at the ELR what they are, full of laughs, teamwork, and putting on a show for the railway to be very proud of. Thank you to every single volunteer and member of staff for their efforts in making the event a very successful few days, here’s to the next one!

08/04/2026