Photo:
Colin Ashman - Société John Cockerill 2945 Yvonne running in Down Yard - Oct 2004

No. 2945 Yvonne is a Société John Cockerill vertical boilered tank engine, a "cousin" to Sentinel 9537 Susan. She was built in 1920 and worked as a shunter in Brussels, Belgium, gasworks until withdrawal in 1967. She then stood idle in a damp, leaky corrugated iron shed along with several more locomotives of various types.

In 1987 she was purchased from Charles Focquet, a Brussels scrap merchant. Brought to England she underwent several years of comprehensive restoration work at the Northampton and Lamport Railway. Since then she has visited most of the East Midland preserved railways, operating mainly at the Snibsden Discovery Centre at Coalville.

A complete boiler overhaul was completed at Tyseley, including fitting of 130 new thimble tubes. The locomotive arrived at Quainton on the 9th December 2002. The boiler was replaced in the frames during 2004, and Yvonne was in steam at Quainton during 2005, leaving for the Nene Valley Railway shortly afterwards. In July 2006 No. 2945 moved to the private Statfold Barn Railway, then to the Telford Steam Railway. Yvonne then went to the Hollycombe Working Steam Museum, Iron Hill, Liphook, Hampshire. She moved to the Lavender Line on the 25th January 2014. The locomotive reached the end of its 10 year boiler ticket in December 2014, and her overhaul has now started.

Current Location - Lavender Line, Isfield Station, Nr Uckfield, East Sussex

References:
Gallery of Locomotives previously located at Quainton - Quainton News No. 101 - April 2009