Bagnall 0-6-0 saddle tank built 1954, number 3059 "Florence No 2"

This locomotive was one of a batch supplied to the NCB North Staffordshire Area where it worked with similar locomotives on a 2 mile long, steeply graded line from Florence Colliery to a washery and BR main line connection at Trentham. It left the Castle Engine Works in Stafford on 29 January 1954, and joined an identical locomotive at Florence that had also arrived new in 1950, known simply as "No1". A Giesel ejector with its characteristic rectangular tapered chimney was fitted to "Florence No 2" in April 1962 to improve steaming. Diesels took over the operation of the line in 1968 and sister loco "No 1" was scrapped in 1971, but "Florence No 2" remained spare loco for several years. On 10 January 1975 it was moved to the NCB Cadley Hill Colliery, part of the South Midlands Area.

The NCB loaned the locomotive to the Battlefield Line Railway when it was in need of further motive power for its passenger trains, and it arrived there for preservation on 12 May 1978. Until it required heavy boiler repairs it was used on the line, and then put into store. Ownership eventually passed to the Battlefield Railway but without the resources to restore it, "Florence No2" remained on static display at Shackerstone station. A Foxfield Railway member offered to buy it to bring "Florence No2" back home to North Staffordshire, and since its arrival in 2000 it has enjoyed an intensive restoration of the boiler and mechanical parts, with a view to returning to steam in the near future.

Below: Bagnall 0-6-0ST "Florence No2" at NCB Florence in 1954 (HB Holland collection)