‘Old friend’ steams back into Leadhills

May 15 2008

AN old friend has made its return to the country’s highest railway.

The Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway Society’s locomotive Mennock returned to the station at Leadhills after having been on hire for a year.

The 12 tonne, 100hp locomotive was one of a fleet of five built in 1994 by Hunslet of Leeds for use on the Jubilee Line extension in London.

In 2003, the Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway Society got the opportunity of buying one, and four of the members bought it for use at Leadhills.

However, the original owners asked to hire it for work on the site of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

The first phase of site clearance at The Lower Lea Valley was the removal of masses of pylons and power transmission cables. The power lines would be diverted underground, and this is where the Leadhills locomotive was employed.

The contract involved the construction of two tunnels, each 6km long.

Mennock's job was to take workers to and from where the tunnelboring machines were, and to remove the spoil from the tunnel face.

The shift system in London was 24 hours per day, seven days a week, with planned shutdowns over Christmas and Easter.

Mennock returned to Leadhills at the end of April.