Witham Helps 1940’s Ruston Train Restoration

Ruston & Hornsby was an industrial equipment manufacturer founded in 1918 and in based in Lincoln.

The company is best known as a manufacturer of narrow and standard gauge diesel locomotives and also of steam shovels. Other products included cars, steam locomotives and a range of internal combustion engines, and later gas turbines. It is now a subsidiary of Siemens.

One of our customers is embarking on a new project to restore one of the original post war locomotives, which they are calling “Imp”, and we are helping them out with the paint.

They said:

We owe a massive thank you to The Witham Group who when we approached them regarding advice on which paint would be best, they informed us that in the past they have supported certain local projects and have decided to support us restoring Imp. Witham Group are celebrating their 100th birthday and would have supplied Rustons with the original paint and oil for our loco which is 80 years old this year, so it is very fitting that her new paintwork will have come from them also. Less than a day after we went to see the friendly folk at their head office in Lincoln, we received a phone call to collect our donation of paint. We cannot begin to thank them enough and it’s a great feeling knowing that 80 years after it began, a local company cares enough to ensure that a link from our local history has been continued.

They are going to send us photos of the restoration and we can’t wait to see how she progresses.

If you’re interested in the project, you can follow their progress on Facebook by following their group: Ruston 48DS 207103 ‘IMP’.

We’re proud to support a number of different community projects, which you can read more about here.