The Taff Vale Railway O2 class was a class of

0-6-2T T, or t, is the twentieth Letter (alphabet), letter in the English language, modern English English alphabet, alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Its name in English is English alphabet#Letter names, ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''te ...

steam

tank locomotives A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locomot ...

Tom Hurry Riches Tom Hurry Riches (1846–1911) was a British engineer who became the Locomotive Superintendent of the Taff Vale Railway in October 1873, and held the post until his death. At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest locomotive superinte ...

and introduced to the

Taff Vale Railway The Taff Vale Railway (TVR) was a standard gauge railway in South Wales, built by the Taff Vale Railway Company to serve the iron and coal industries around Merthyr Tydfil and to connect them with docks in Cardiff. It was opened in stag ...

in 1899.

Numbering

Withdrawal and disposal

All were withdrawn from traffic between 1926 and 1928. One locomotive, GWR 426 (TVR 85) was sold to the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "v ...

and used at their Philadelphia Colliery, numbered 52. It was subsequently saved for preservation, and is based at the

Keighley and Worth Valley Railway The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway is a heritage railway line in the Worth Valley, West Yorkshire, England, which runs from Keighley to Oxenhope. It connects to the National Rail network at Keighley railway station. History Inception and ...

. It was restored to original Taff Vale condition in 2000, although the paintwork didn't receive any lining out, and ran on a regular basis until 2009 when its boiler ticket expired. Due to its popularity and good condition, it received a further overhaul which was completed in February 2016, just in time for the line's Winter Steam Gala that year. This time though, the loco's paintwork received full lining out, effectively completing its original Taff Vale appearance. Since re-entering service, the loco remains part of the railway's operational fleet. 20170806104719_IMG_0929-01

References

* * O2 0-6-2T locomotives Neilson locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1899 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain {{UK-steam-loco-stub