A second engine for the Standard 4 Locomotive Society

With restoration well in hand on 75078, the Standard 4 Locomotive Society turned its attention to purchasing a second locomotive and in 1975 the Society purchased the smaller, but versatile Standard Class 2 78022. Another 18 years would pass before restoration was completed on this locomotive

Life on British Railways

This class of engine is a direct development of the LMS-designed lvatt Class 2MT 2-6-0. This loco, of course, is BR built and has Standard British Railways fittings such as injector clack valves, regulator, and so on. This class was built at the former LNER workshops at Darlington. By the end of production there were 65 Standard examples in traffic working alongside 128 engines of the LMS design. The new Standard design was ideally suited to shunting work where it may not return to shed for several days or secondary passenger or freight train duties involving over 50 miles operational requirement. Medium distance work could be handled far better by this Standard tender locomotive than their tank engine counterparts due to having a tender which gave increased coal and water capacity

This class of engine had a wide working sphere of operations with only the Southern Region not having any members of this class allocated. Although quite archaic in appearance, these locomotives have quite a number of ‘modern’ design features and principles including a rocking fire grate, hopper ash pan and the widespread use of grease lubrication

No. 78022 was delivered new from Darlington on 28 February 1954 to Millhouses Depot in Sheffield where it remained until the shed closed in 1962. As steam usage declined across the network 78022 started a nomadic tour of the country being allocated to the following depots: Doncaster, Stratford (London), March (Cambridgeshire), Barrow, Aintree and finally Lostock Hall (Preston) from where the engine was withdrawn from traffic in February 1967

From there 78022, like over 200 other locomotives, was dispatched to the Barry scrapyard of Woodham Bros. in South Wales to await its destiny with a cutters torch, a destiny not to be fulfilled

From scrapyard to life in West Yorkshire

Encouraged by the progress made with the rebuild of 75078, the Standard 4 Locomotive Society returned to Barry in 1975, purchasing 78022, a locomotive ideally suited to the Worth Valley branch. It was offloaded at Haworth on the 11th of June 1975 and laid aside to await the day when restoration would begin, although it was to be another 18 years before this locomotive was restored to running order

After laying untouched in Haworth Yard, 78022 was eventually the recipient of an extensive restoration from Barry condition which was completed in 1993, the locomotive proving popular with footplate crews, being capable of handling five coach services on off peak turns of duty. Following the successful fitting of a Giesel ejector to the now departed 34092 ‘City of Wells’, the Society experimented with fitting one to 78022

Having languished at Oxenhope since withdrawal in 2003, 78022 came to the head of the overhaul queue again in 2015 and was moved to Haworth where stripping commenced to determine the extent of work required. That work was been thorough, and this useful locomotive returned to service in November 2018 in a lined-out BR green livery

During the winter of 2023/4 78022 underwent a mid-term retube and was returned to service for the 2024 Steam Gala. 2028 will see the end of the locos 10-year boiler certificate and will therefore join the other locos in the queue for their time to return to service.