A sprawling steel works nestling among the mountains of central Bosnia is not the obvious place to come shopping for steam trains. But a group of rail enthusiasts has spent more than £50,000 locating and buying an old locomotive, and is now shipping it back to England. The engine they found has spent the last half century at the Zenica steel works in central Bosnia.

According to project leader, Richard White, "We did a lot of searching, first on the internet and by telephone - most of this type of locomotive are here in the Balkans, so we knew we’d have to come down here. The people here smiled when we first contacted them. I don’t think they could believe we were serious about buying one of their engines."

The journey across Europe will take a week, after which the serious work of restoring the train will begin. Once it is finished it will be used on the Mid Hants Watercress Line in southern England, and the enthusiasts hope the engine’s cab can be adapted to allow access by the disabled and people in wheelchairs.

Steam power still plays a part in daily life at the steel works. Two steam trains help ferry people and steel around the enormous plant, which has more than 100km (62 miles) of track.

Richard’s opinion is that the train "is a bargain. If you compare it to an expensive saloon car that will only last ten or twelve years we are getting very good value for money." He estimates that, in two years time, the engine will be operational.

www.watercressline.co.uk

12.06

Forty tonnes on a low loader
The locomotive will take a week to cross Europe by road, followed by two years of hard refurbishment work