No. 994 George Sholto steams into service

Tom gives George Sholto the thumbs up

After the new boiler's arrival last year, and with much work this year, George Sholto passed its boiler inspection a couple of days ago and entered passenger service yesterday. In a stroke of luck, I happened to be around for its second day of service and managed to get some photographs whilst it's still gleaming.

It's really great to finally see it out and about after following its progress through the workshops over the last ten or so months. The other great thing is that it can pull more carriages than Bevan, so it will be really useful for Hallowe'en evening and the Christmas specials when it can get rather busy.

Passing the workshops

Steaming in Peat Field 1

One point of discussion that I'm sure will arise is why the name was changed from Bill Harvey back to George Sholto — I think the reasoning behind it is that now it's been restored to its former glory, it makes sense to use the original name.

Well done to Phil, Tony, John and Brian in the workshops — it looks fantastic.