A STEAM locomotive made famous by a 1950s film showing its rescue from a snowdrift is set to take centre stage at a steam gala later this year.

Locomotion: The National Railway Museum at Shildon has confirmed that steam locomotive BR Standard Class 2MT No. 78018 will be on show at the museum’s Autumn Steam Gala event in September.

Built at Darlington North Road Works in 1953, 78018 entered traffic on March 3, 1954 at West Auckland Shed. This was soon followed by a move to Kirkby Stephen, working trains from Tebay to Barnard Castle on the Stainmore Railway.

But it was while on this line that it became famous by getting stuck in a snowdrift during February 1955.

Its subsequent rescue was recorded in the British Transport Film Snowdrift at Bleath Gill, which can be viewed in the museum’s Collection Building. The black and white film explains how heavy snowfall had blocked many of the routes around the region and at about 5am on Thursday, February 24, when the alarm was raised that goods were stuck as a heavy snowdrift took hold of the locomotive.

Two heavy engines and two ploughs were sent to rescue it but the snow was so bad that they got stuck too. Civil engineers were then brought in to figure out the problem and dozens of men were tasked with clearing the lines by hand. It was eventually freed from its snowy prison four days later.

It was withdrawn on November 12, 1966, before spending 11 years at Barry scrapyard in Wales.

It is now owned by the Darlington Railway Preservation Society (DRPS), who spent more than 30 years restoring as much of the engine as they could, while also collecting the vast majority of the brass fittings for the engine, which had been removed before they took ownership.

Loughborough Standards Locomotive Group (LSLG) had already restored sister engine 78019, and following an agreement with the DRPS, 78018 moved to the Great Central Railway, home of LSLG, for completion before returning to traffic in Autumn 2016.

Visitors to the Autumn Steam Gala at Locomotion: The National Railway Museum at Shildon will have the opportunity to see 78018 in light steam on the events apron and enjoy cab access to this famous locomotive on September 16 and 17.

Several other locomotives will also be on outdoor display, and there will be steam train rides, behind Furness Railway No. 20, the oldest standard gauge locomotive still working in the UK.

  • The museum is open daily from 10am to 5pm, and is free to enter.
  • For more information, call the museum team on 01388-777999.