Greenwood and Batley Coke Oven Locomotive No. 420452 built 1979

420452 shortly after arriving at Moor Road
The Leeds firm of Greenwood & Batley (later known as Greenbat) built their first coke oven locomotive in 1934 and continued to build them at their Armley works until 1979 when the locomotive you see here - the final coke oven locomotive to be built by Greenwood & Batley - was completed.

Supplied to the Monckton Coke & Chemical Co Ltd, Royston, Barnsley she was used to propel the 'coke car' wagon which received the coke from the ovens and transported it at a fixed crawling speed through the quenching tower where the coke was water cooled prior to transport to the storage area.

This process was repeated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and eventually she was superseded by cable haulage of the coke car. Her working life over, she was kindly donated to the Middleton Railway Trust by the Monckton Coke & Chemical Company Ltd in July 2003. She is one of the last locomotives to have been built in Leeds - a process that started here at Middleton in 1812.

The locomotive is powered by electricity at 230 volts DC and fitted with two 25hp electric motors. She was delivered to Royston in June 1979 and arrived at the Middleton Railway on 17 July 2003.