Robert

...Stratford

...Inscription

Robert

This 0-6-0 saddletank locomotive was built in 1933 by the Avonside Engine Company of Bristol for the Lamport Ironstone Mines Railway in Northamptonshire.

After the railway closed in 1969, Robert worked on a number of heritage railways before being acquired by the London Docklands Development Corporation as an example of a twentieth century industrial steam locomotive and was displayed at the site of the former Beckton Gas Works, once the largest producer of 'Town Gas' in Europe.

In 2000, his new owners, the London Borough of Newham, moved Robert to Stratford station where he stood until 2008 before making way for the expansion of passenger facilities ready for London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Whilst the upgrading work continued Robert was displayed at the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chappel and Waked Colne in Essex where he was repainted in Colchester Crimson. He returned in 2011 and continues to commemorate the area's long association with railways which began when the first station was opened here by the Eastern Counties Railway in 1839.