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During a Steaming Around Yorkshire photo charter, L&YR ‘Ironclad’ No.52044 climbs Oakworth Bank on a pleasant spring afternoon at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. Photographed on the 3rd March 2026.

L&YR Class 25 No.52044 returned to traffic in 2020 following overhaul at Haworth MPD and is now a regular performer at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.

Locomotive history:

Designed by W. Barton Wright, the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway’s Class 25 ‘Ironclad’ 0-6-0 was introduced in 1876, with 280 locomotives built over the following 11 years. No.957 was built by Beyer Peacock in Manchester in 1887 and spent most of its working life at Goole and Wakefield, hauling passenger, goods and coal trains. It became LMS No.12044 in 1923 and BR No.52044 in 1948 before withdrawal in August 1959 after 72 years of service.
Saved by Tony Cox, No.52044 became one of Britain’s earliest privately preserved steam locomotives and arrived at the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in March 1965, three years before the line reopened.
The locomotive achieved national fame in the 1970 film The Railway Children, appearing in green livery as the unofficial ‘Green Dragon’, and later featured in Born and Bred and The Hound of the Baskervilles. Withdrawn in 1975, it returned to traffic in 2001 following a major overhaul funded by the Bowers Trust. After a further withdrawal in 2012, restoration resumed in 2016 in time for the 50th anniversary of The Railway Children.