One of the world’s oldest working railway steam locomotives, Beamish Museum’s Coffee Pot No. 1 was built in 1871 on Teesside by Head Wrightson & Co for Dorking Greystone Lime Company for use at its Betchworth Quarry in Surrey.
This 0-4-0 vertical-boilered geared locomotive, was supplied by engineer TH Head of London in 1871, and cost £462.9.6. It was ordered in May 1871 and delivered later that year, and it is believed to have last worked at Betchworth in 1949.
It was collected for Beamish museum in 1969 and stored until it eventually moved to the site in 1975. Once at the museum, steps began to return Coffee Pot to steaming condition and it made a number of appearances in action from around 1978.
After an overhaul in 1983-84, when Coffee Pot was returned to 1920s/30s appearance, it was relaunched at Beamish in May 1984 and ran throughout the 1980s.
By 2006, Coffee Pot had been out of use for a number of years, and its most recent restoration began, which included the construction of a new boiler to the original pattern and restoration of other features to take the locomotive back to its original 1871-73 appearance. The newly-restored locomotive was unveiled in March 2010.
Since then, Coffee Pot has been regularly used at events and has visited other railways around the country.
