VoR #8 Strikes a Pose

Vale of Rheidol #8 and driver strike a pose while passing around their train in the Aberystwyth loop. #8 is the second of two 2-6-2T side-tank engines built by the Great Western for the VoR a year after it assumed ownership of the line in 1922. A third engine, #9, was added in 1924. Today #8 proudly wears the same colors with which she first emerged from the GWR shops in 1923. The engine's copper-capped smokestack and bright brass safety-valve cover both speak unmistakably of her Swindon pedigree.