The North Tyneside Steam Railway has announced that a star attraction at next month’s Steam Gala to be held From Friday, 14th to Sunday, 16th July will be the former Lambton Collieries steam locomotive, 0-6-2 tank engine Lambton No. 29.

Built in 1904 by Kitson of Leeds, Lambton No. 29 was the first 0-6-2 tank engine to be employed at the Lambton Colliery, where it worked until 1969 when It was made redundant along with the colliery’s other remaining steam locomotives.

No. 29 is visiting the North Tyneside Steam Railway from the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

Also appearing at the gala will be another much younger Lambton Colliery steam locomotive, 0-6-2 tank engine Lambton No. 60, which was built in 1948 and is usually based on the Strathspey Railway in Scotland.

At one time, the Lambton Colliery railway was the largest of all such railways in northeast England, totalling about 70 miles across its mainline and branch lines.

It was an early exponent of steam locomotives, using them from 1814, but due to the railway’s steep inclines, the early steam locomotives were replaced by a cable-hauled wagonway.

The North Tyneside Steam Railway with its sister attraction the Stephenson Steam Railway is located in North Shields in North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear.

The railway is a standard gauge line, 2 miles long running from the railway’s museum to Percy Main along the alignment of various former coal wagonways, which the Test Centre later used for the Tyne and Wear Metro.

The Test Centre was originally housed in the museum and workshops. Nowadays, the museum is dedicated to the famous railway engineers George Stephenson and his son Robert, and housed in the museum is one of George’s early locomotives, Billy.

Tickets for the gala are now on sale and can be booked at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/stephensonrailway