STEAM enthusiasts are in for a treat in April when a locomotive of the Victorian age will be arriving in Bodmin.

Built by the London and South Western Railway in 1891 and now based on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, the locomotive will be the star guest at the Bodmin and Wenford Railway's Spring Steam Spectacular gala, and it will be the first time the engine will have been seen on the British mainland since 1925.

London and South Western Railway '02' Class 0-4-4T No W24 Calbourne will meet up with two other steam locomotives based at Bodmin – 'T9' Class 4-4-0 No 30120 and Beattie 2-4-0 well tank No 30587, both of which are owned by the National Railway Museum – to create a line-up of three former LSWR engines in steam back in Cornwall.

Calbourne is now the only surviving member of the once-strong Adams '02' Class, and was the first locomotive acquired for preservation by the embryonic Isle of Wight Steam Railway in 1967. It was built by the LSWR at its locomotive works at Nine Elms in London in 1891, to a design by chief mechanical engineer William Adams, and originally numbered LSWR 209.

The locomotive's early years were spent working out of Fratton and Exeter sheds, before being passed into Southern Railway ownership in 1923. On April 26, 1925, No 209 was shipped to the Isle of Wight as part of a major modernisation of the island's railway system, given the name Calbourne (a village on the island) and has remained there ever since.

Bodmin and Wenford Railway general manager Richard Jones said: "Members of the LSWR '02' Class were once a regular sight working local passenger services between Padstow and Bodmin North, over the original Bodmin and Wadebridge line, and were even seen on the GWR branch at Bodmin General and Bodmin Road, and so its appearance at the Bodmin and Wenford Railway in April is highly appropriate."

The Bodmin and Wenford Railway's Spring Steam Spectacular will be held from Friday to Sunday, April 20 to 22.