Today’s photo shows a forlorn looking locomotive lying upside down in a swamp in 1996.
The locomotive in question is, of course, our own Hudswell Clarke H class locomotive No 1238 of 1916, originally delivered to the Obuassi Gold mine in Ghana, where it was used to haul timber from the nearby forests to the mine for use as part of the gold ore roasting process. Colin knew of the locomotive and had been looking for it by following the track beds of the different lines, some up to 25 miles in length away from the mine.
The loco was put on display as part of a small museum which was maintained by some of the Europeans working at Obuassi. In 2006, the mine directors felt that they cold no longer keep the locomotive and, through contacts in the UK, eventually donated it to the Moseley Railway Trust in 2007.
