Hunslet Austerity Saddle Tank in Beautiful Blue at K&ESR

No 25 at Bodiam Station on the Kent and East Sussex railway.
No 23 & 25 - Holman F Stephens & Northiam
In 1942, in anticipation of an invasion of the continent, it was decided to design and construct a heavy shunting locomotive. The Hunslet Company took the design lead and the Austerity saddle tank was born. The first of 377 locos left the Leeds works less than six months after the initial order had been placed. After the war, 106 further locos were built, including seventy-seven destined for the National Coal Board. As a result of their simple robust design, they became widely used in industry, whilst others remained active on the Continent.
The K&ESR locomotives were built by Hunslet for the Army after the war and were initially stored at the Longmoor Military Railway. Following use at a number of locations, No.23 was sold and arrived at Rolvenden in 1972 - it had accumulated a total of just 23,178 miles during its 20 year military career. No. 23 entered service in August 1974 & was named Holman F. Stephens (after the Railway's engineer and first Managing Director) in 1977. It has operated extensively during the last forty years, but is currently awaiting an overhaul.
Sister loco No. 25 worked at various Army locations before coming to the K&ESR in 1977. It initially remained Army property, but the Ministry of Defence sold it to a small group of members in October 1979. Another ‘low mileage' model, it entered service in 1981 in a lined blue livery similar to the K&ESR livery used in Colonel Stephens' days.