Engines from our Collection Compiled by Gareth Jones
No.1 is seen in mid air being unloaded with No.3 already on UK ground in 1969
The Engines from Hulleras de Sabero Hulleras de Sabero was a Spanish industrial railway, which had two railway systems of differing gauges. A metre gauge line ran for 3km between Cisternia and the coal washing plant at Sabero and a 600mm line ran between Sabero and Sotillos about 6km serving the various mines along the way. We will be focussing on the 600mm gauge fleet as the entire steam locomotive fleet and the Director’s Saloon from this gauge was saved and preserved by the late Peter Rampton. The fleet comprised eight locomotives which he imported in 1969, with the engines arriving at West India Pier, Port of London, in the February. The Hulleras De Sabero was founded on the 7th September 1892, and by 1900 the 600mm system was carrying an average of 1,600 tons of coal each month, becoming the second most important mining system in the country. The first engine received by the mine was an 0-6-0 Couillet tank locomotive No.1140 of 1895 it was given the name Sabero and the number 1. It was one of the last engines still in steam on the line towards the end of its Couillet No.1 Page 12
