Built for Black Park Colliery Co. Ltd., Denbighshire, Wales in November 1937. Delivered by the LMS to Chirk. Ended life at Bersham Colliery, Wrexham, Wales.
Pecketts built around 1500 small saddle tanks for industrial service, mostly similar in appearance, using standard fittings and layout with outside cylinders. No 1935 is a typical example and it is also the only survivor of the Greenhithe class which has a lowered footplate and cab for working under restricted loading gauges. When Black Park Colliery was closed “Hornet” was transferred to Weston Rhyn loco shed during March 1951 and from here worked the NCB line to Ifton Colliery in Shropshire.
In November 1968, she was transferred again to Bersham Colliery where she shared duties with Hawthorn Leslie “Shakespeare”. When eventually displaced by diesels, Shakespeare was scrapped, but after lying out of use since March 1980, she was rescued & preserved in October 1983. Hornet is currently undergoing a full restoration to operational condition in in our workshop, with her refurbished boiled expected to undergo a hydraulic test in 2024. Meanwhile, most pipework has been replaced on the locomotive ready for a speedy re-assembly when boiler works conclude
