The Swanage Railway Trust’s 563 Locomotive Group have revealed an appeal to achieve £85,000 in order to complete the detailed restoration of London and South Western Railway T3 No.563 and will see the Victorian locomotive back on the tracks and steaming for the first time since 1948.

The locomotive was an exceptional example of an express passenger train back in her heyday and was luckily saved from the scrapper’s yard to take part in the celebrations for the centenary of London Waterloo station in 1948.

No. 563 is the sole surviving of her class and during her working life had seen over 1.5 million miles travelled with her final withdrawal in August of 1945 by the Southern Railway Company.

The locomotive’s return to steam is aimed to be achieved for spring this year in order to celebrate the centenary of Southern Railway and also the 185th anniversary of the London and South Western Railway’s origination.

Swanage Railway Trust’s 563 Locomotive Group impressive and diligent restoration project has already seen costs of £600,000 and got underway back in November of 2017 with specialist contractors at the Flour Mill workshops in the Forest of Dean and at Swanage Railway’s Herston engineering works.

At present, the T3 is being painted in her London and South Western Railway Drummond Green livery featuring brown borders with a lining of black and white which 563 carried from 1893 until the formation of Southern Railway in 1923.

Chairman of 563 Locomotive Group, Nathan Au, said: “It’s very exciting to see the finishing line for the challenging and meticulous restoration of a unique Victorian steam locomotive come into sight – we are on the final sprint and almost there.

“The T3’s working life was over before many of the other steam locomotives that we operate on the Swanage Railway had been built.

“The unique and iconic No. 563 will offer something new and exciting to everyone on the Swanage Railway – enabling our visitors, members, volunteers and locomotive crews to enjoy an evocative taste of Victorian train travel.

“We are very grateful to the National Railway Museum which donated the T3 to the Swanage Railway Trust in 2017,” added Nathan who is a volunteer Swanage Railway driver.

563 Locomotive Group treasurer Steve Doughty explained: “I would like to thank everyone who has so generously supported the restoration of the T3 which is thought to have hauled a Dunkirk evacuation train in the summer of 1940.

“We understand times are challenging financially for people but we hope the last push to raise £85,000 to complete the restoration will see No. 563 back in steam for the first time since 1948.

“Seeing the T3 hauling trains through the beautiful Isle of Purbeck and past the dramatic ruins of Corfe Castle will be an amazing sight not seen in the area for almost a century.

“No. 563 is a direct link to the Swanage Railway’s past – right back to the early days of the London and South Western Railway when holidaymakers first visited Purbeck by train,”

A number of fascinating behind the scene fund-raising videos have been created by Swanage Railway regarding the T3’s history and its ongoing restoration and can be found here.

Anyone wishing to get behind the incredible work of the Swanage Railway Trust’s 563 Locomotive Group can either make a donation or set up a standing order which will support the completion of the T3. Details to do this are available here alongside fantastic detail of this impressive and unique locomotive’s detailed overhaul and further information regarding her amazing history.