Last updated 08:45, Monday, 01 September 2008

TWO old railway locomotives from Furness are to tour the country.

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The 1863 built Furness Railway No 20 steam loco, which is based at the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway, is off on a low loader to tour railways in the North East.

It will appear at the Tanfield Railway gala near Newcastle on September 13 and 14 and then be put on show at Locomotion in Shildon, which is an outstation of the National Railway Museum.

No 20, which will tour the North East with another vintage loco called Bellerophon, will finish its tour by working on the short stretch of railway at the famous Beamish Museum where townscapes from the past have been recreated.

It will be at Locomotion for the museum’s gala from September 20 to 21, and be working at Beamish on September 27/28.

The old loco survived by a fluke after it was bought by Barrow steelworks and kept for nearly 100 years as a shunter.

It was restored by the Furness Railway Trust with lottery grants.

The other vintage engine with Barrow connections on the move is the London Underground owned locomotive Sarah Siddons, one of a batch of electric locos built by the shipyard in the 1920s.

It was completed in 1923 for the Metropolitan Railway.

Sarah Siddons is to make a return to passenger services on September 14 running a shuttle service between Harrow and Amersham to attract tourists and enthusiasts.