WD132 ‘Sapper’

Sapper was built in 1944 for the War Department by the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds. Works number 3153, the WD gave her the number 75103. She was then renumbered 132 after the war.

After military service, she was purchased by the National Coal Board for colliery work alongside many of her sisters. She has the distinction of being the last steam locomotive in industrial service in the UK, being taken out of use from Bold Colliery in 1984. After initial preservation at Chatterley Whitfield Mining Museum, she went to the South Devon Railway in 1994 where she worked for a couple of seasons before withdrawal.

Remarkably, over 80 of these versatile ex-WD locomotives have survived into preservation.

Sapper was sold by the SDR to a private buyer in 2009 and has been fully overhauled by the Flour Mill before making the East Lancashire Railway its home.

The loco arrived at AVR in 2016 and was resident here until December 2022.