Hunslet works number 3783 was built in 1953 for the National Coal Board, being sent to Darfield Main Colliery near Barnsley, becoming Darfield No 1. Working with one other engine it spent its entire working life at Darfield, except for a short term at the nearby Houghton Main Colliery in 1959. Darfield colliery received diesel shunting locomotives in 1970, No.1 being kept as a spare engine until 1974.
In 1975 the engine was purchased for preservation, being returned to service on the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway in 1981. Withdrawn from service for overhaul in 1987 Darfield No.1 moved to the Llangollen Railway, where the locomotive re-entered service on 1990. Industrial shunting engines are not ideal for longer heritage lines and as the Llangollen extended less work was available for Darfield and it was hired by the Avon Valley Railway (between Bristol & Bath) for the 1994 season, returning for the following year. By the end of the 1995 season Darfield required further boiler repairs and moved to the East Lancs Railway where it was stored until 2000.
Returning to Llangollen restoration started in 2001, with Darfield receiving a number of modifications to better adapt the former industrial shunting engine for heritage railway passenger services. Available for hire from 2006 Darfield went to the Dartmoor Railway at Okehampton for 2 years, then returning to the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway.
In 2011 Darfield No.1 was hired to and later purchased by the Chasewater Railway. In 2012 Darfield assumed the identity of sister Hunslet 16in engine 1451 of 1924, Holly Bank No.3 which worked at the Holly Bank Colliery close to the Chasewater Railways' site until 1962.
Specification
- Designed from original works drawings and field visits to a number of preserved 16in Hunslets.
- Die-cast construction
- Quality mechanism
- Next18 decoder socket
- NEM coupler pockets
- Sprung buffers
- Key detail changes between individual locomotives