IRON WAR-HORSE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 302, 16 September 1933, Page 18

IRON WAR-HORSE

Famous Veteran of the War

Britain’s most famous veteran of the railways has gone into retirement. She is “Locomotive 2717.” of the London Midland and Scottish Railway, and she is believed to be the only British railway engine to have been captured by the Germans. She has had a working life of more than 1,220,000 miles. Locomotive 2717 was one of 78 loaned to the Railway Operating Division for active war service overseas. She was captured by the enemy during the battle of Cambrai in 1917, and for five months was used as a machine-gun post in “No Man’s Land.” In the following March retreat, the Germans removed the engine, patched up the bullet and shrapnel holes, and used her for railway purposes until she was recaptured in the great British advance of November, 1918. She was the first troop train to run from Mons to the German frontier. At the end of the war she was decorated with a plate recording her war service, and has been used on freight work until this year. She was first built more than fify years ago.—Reuter, special to “The Dominion.”