It could have been ‘journey’s end’: The two 8Fs in a siding at Sivas, having been stored for 20 years. The sleepers under the second locomotive are so rotten that the engine has dropped between the rails. The one nearest the camera is no. 45170, the other is 45166 (Photo: Mike Hoskin)  


Journey’s beginning: the unmistakeable lines of two British-built 8F 2-8-0s, nos. 45170 (nearest the camera) and 45166 are shunted at Sivas yard before being added to a freight train that would take them 850 miles across Turkey to Izmir ready for shipping to the UK (Photo Mike Hoskin)  


New beginning: the rescue team with 8F no. 45166, safely arrived from Sivas at Izmir docks before being shipped back to the UK. Left to right are: on the locomotive, Mike and Kevin Hoskin, in front are Chris Brooks and Andrew Goodman (Photo: Guven Ogaz)  

Don't miss the History Channel on Tuesday evening (29^th March) at 9pm: Monster Moves traces the story of the move of two British-built Stanier 8F class 2-8-0 locomotives across Turkey from Sivas to Izmir, ready for shipping back to the UK.

This story has been widely told already in the railway media.  The Churchill 8F Group are responsible for this huge challenge, which involved taking the locomotives - which had not moved a wheel for at least a decade - within a freight train over 850 miles from one side of the country to the other, and without so much as a hot axlebox developing, although there were plenty of other challenges en-route!  The documentary traces every step of this extraordinary journey.

The locomotives are now safely in the UK.  The Toddington-based Churchill 8F Group are already well experienced in 'monster moves' of this sort: their ex-Turkish 8F no. 45160 was returned to steam on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway in 2010 and the programme includes clips of this engine working on the line. 

Mike Hoskin, who has developed a close relationship with the Turkish railwaymen and Government departments who have enthusiastically co-operated with the project, says: "I'd particularly like to acknowledge the help given by Fahri Polat of Sivas shed who couldn't have been more helpful, and travelled with us on the freight train.

"The film is a real epic - and although many might think that this is a crazy venture, it is saving a vital piece of British railway heritage and tells an extraordinary story about how these engines came to be so far from home in Turkey in the first place."

He adds: "I'm certain that the friends we have made in Turkey think we are more than a bit mad.  And just to prove it, we plan to go back to get two more - leaving two preserved examples remaining in the country!"

Both locomotives will eventually be returned to steam.  No 45170 is privately owned and is currently on display at the National Railway Museum's Shildon centre; the other is owned by the Churchill 8F Group and is currently stored at Barry in South Wales: close to the site of the infamous Barry scrapyard where some of its British sisters ended up.

No. 45160 will be one of the mainstays of services between Cheltenham Racecourse and Winchcombe this year, which start on 22^nd April.

Meanwhile, the 8F will be appearing at the Gr8 Escape gala event over the weekend of 9^th and 10^th April.

For more information and a clip, you can go to http://www.history.co.uk/videos.html?bctid=791119451001&title=Monster-Moves:-Titanic-Train