- Class: A1X (partially back-converted to A1 appearance)
- Designer: William Stroudley
- Wheels: 0-6-0T
- Built: 1872, Brighton Works
- Numbers Carried: 72, B636, 2636, 32636
- Last Overhaul Completed: 10 January 2023
- Arrived On Bluebell Railway: 13 May 1964
- Previously Operational: February 2001 to 23 January 2011, as No. 672
- Owned By: Bluebell Railway Trust (in its operating subsidiary, BRT Heritage Assets Ltd)
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Stroudley’s famous Terriers survived for decades after more modern designs had been scrapped, working on lightly laid Branch lines. ‘Fenchurch’ was sold to the Newhaven Harbour Company, being light enough to cross a bridge within the docks. It came back into Southern Railway ownership, and continued to work at Newhaven for many years. It came to the Bluebell in 1964, having been for a number of years a celebrity as the oldest locomotive working on British Railways.
In early December 2019 ‘Fenchurch’ entered the Locomotive works, was dismantled to remove the boiler, which was overhauled at Sheffield Park, fitting a new firebox made by Israel Newton. The chassis was overhauled under contract, and a new cylinder block we had cast for it, machined and fitted at Statfold Barn. Completed in November 2022, an intensive period of running in and testing followed, with a return to service in January 2023. It is now painted in its original Stroudley Golden Ochre livery. You can see details of this recent overhaul here.
During its 2001 overhaul ‘Fenchurch’ had been largely converted back to represent its original A1 rather than A1X form and painted as 672 in Marsh Umber, after which it gave ten years of pretty reliable service.
