SBR - Portugesa {1 of 3}

Portugesa aka Escucha : 0-4-0ST
Built in 1883 by Black Hawthorn [Newcastle upon Tyne] {wksno. 748} and exported via Swansea and seems to have disappeared. By the latter half of the 20th century she was renamed Escucha and had been modified with longer frames and side tanks. In 1984 the late Eric Maxwell found her at Minas T Ferrocariles de Utrillas in Tervel, Spain. He bought her and returned her to the area where she had been built, and housed her in a specially built shed at the Tanfield Railway. Some restoration work had been done, but not completed when Eric died.
Since then HE&CT - the Hawthorn Engine & Carriage Trust - have entered into a partnership with the Statfold Narrow Gauge Museum Trust that will see Portugesa returned to steam by 2030. She's now at Statfold and temporarily bolted together for display ...