Starring Role 

Evening Star returns to Swindon for Railway Festival

 

Forty-eight years after it became the last steam locomotive to be built at the GWR Works, Evening Star returned to Swindon yesterday.

 

An arrival to coincide with next week's Swindon Railway Festival at the STEAM Museum, where Evening Star will be the prize exhibit.

 

Star of the show: Evening Star back in Swindon

 

"We're enormously proud to have such an iconic locomotive back were she was made in 1960," said STEAM curator Fiona Jones.

 

"Evening Star represents a time capsule for the GWR Works here in Swindon because it really was the end of glorious era when she became the last steam-driven engine built in the UK.

 

"Swindon was chosen for that job, and we will be celebrating that fact at the Festival."

 

114 years of engine building history

 

Evening Star's arrival at the museum just after 4pm on Tuesday was the last stage in a 250 mile road journey from Shildon in County Durham, where the engine was housed, to Swindon via the M1 and M4 motorway.

 

Long haul: Evening Star weighs 130 tonnes

 

Moving the locomotive into the museum then took 16 hours overnight, and included the removal of another of Swindon's famous engineering achievements, King George V, which will now be transported to the National Railway museum in York.

 

Evening Star, which was officially named at a ceremony in Swindon on 18 March 1960, will be staying at STEAM for the next 2 years.

 

The Railway Festival takes place on 13 & 14 September 2008.

 

Evening Star Gallery