The Mid Hants Railway, also known as The Watercress Line, has announced that Ex-LMS ‘Jubilee’ No. 45596 ‘Bahamas’ will be visiting them for their Autumn Steam Gala.

45596 Bahamas appears at the gala thanks to the Bahamas Locomotive Society,

As well as 45596 Bahamas, the home fleet of S&D 7F No. 53808 (on long term loan from the Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust), SR S15 No. 30506, BR Standard 4MT No. 76017 and LMS Ivatt 2MT 41312 will all be in operation.

The gala will be held from 16th to the 18th October 2020 and will be the first visit south for Bahamas since 1967, and the first time it has visited another heritage railway (other than the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, since 1997.

A brief history of 45596 Bahamas

45596 Bahamas was built in 1934 by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow for the London Midland & Scottish Railway. 45596 was designed by Sir William Stanier and entered service in 1935. 45596 is the only ‘double chimney’ Jubilee locomotive after being fitted with it in 1961 as part of a trial.

In 1967, Bahamas was purchased from British Railways for preservation by the Bahamas Locomotive Society. After which, it was sent to the Hunslet Engine Company in Leeds for repairs and repainted into LMS Crimson Lake livery.

The BLS secured the lease of a section of track to Dinting Railway Station near Glossop where it established the Dinting Railway Museum.

In 1994, the mainline ticket for 45596 Bahamas expired, with the locomotive spending the next three years running on heritage railways until its 10-year boiler ticket expired in 1997.

For the next 15 years, the locomotive moved between storage and static displays at the KWVR at Ingrow West and Oxenhope, as well as the National Railway Museum in York.

A Heritage Lottery Fund application in 2012 was successful and allowed an overhaul to be completed. In September 2018, 45596 Bahamas was fully restored and in steam at the Tyseley Locomotive Works Open Day.

For more information and updates on 45596 Bahamas, please visit The Bahamas Locomotive Society Facebook page by clicking here.

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