Keighley Yorkshire England United Kingdom - A huge wartime freight locomotive from the USA is making tracks for the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.
 
It will be among the attractions at an autumn steam gala from 10 to 12 Oct 2008.
 
The gala rounds off a series of hugely successful special events marking the K&WVR's 40th anniversary.
 
The US 280 freight locomotive is being hired from the Churnet Valley Railway in Staffordshire.
 
The loco, number 5197, was built in 1944 by the Lima Locomotive Company, Ohio, for the United States Army Corps of Transportation.
 
It was shipped to Europe for the war effort to help the Allied forces move men and munitions.
 
After the war it was sent to China, from where it was repatriated 15 years ago and restored to working order.
 
The loco is virtually identical to the huge American engine "Big Jim", which was imported from Poland by the K&WVR and used in the filming of the movie "Yanks" on the line 30 years ago.
 
K&WVR operating chairman Sam MacDougall said:  "The sheer theatrical brute force of these American wartime engines impresses everyone. Number 5197 storming up the gradients from Keighley to Haworth and Oxenhope with expresses, goods trains, and double-headed passenger services will allow us to show the spectacle we will provide when the overhaul of our own S160, number 5820, is completed."
 
Alistair Shand.