48773, LMS Stanier 8F (Severn Valley Railway)

Built by the North British Locomotive Company at Glasgow in 1940 as WD 307 (the third War Department-numbered 8F), the engine was sent to Persia (Iran) in 1941 for the Trans-Iranian Railway supply route to the Soviet Union. Repatriated in 1948, the engine gave twenty further years of BR service before being withdrawn from Rose Grove (Burnley) in August 1968, the very last 8F in BR service and among the very last steam locomotives in regular British Railways service.

The LMS Stanier 8F was the standard British heavy freight engine of WWII and its aftermath; 48773 represents the class's wartime overseas service uniquely in preservation.