A CLASSIC train will be restored after a charity won £95,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

The Severn Valley Railway Charitable Trust was given the money to help fund the restoration of the Great Western Railway locomotive 4930 ‘Hagley Hall’.

The restored train will be used as a learning and resource tool for the students and apprentices of the Severn Valley Railway’s Heritage Skills Training Academy in Worcestershire and Shropshire.

The train has been out of service for 27 years but now visitors will be able to follow its restoration to completion then experience at first-hand, a journey along the branch line in the same way as previous generations.

Heritage Academy, the apprenticeship and training scheme for young people was launched in September 2013.

This restoration, which will involve stripping the locomotive down to the last nut and bolt, will enable apprentices to experience and acquire a full range of heritage engineering skills.

Hugh McQuade, chairman of the Severn Valley Railway Charitable Trust, said: "While the Severn Valley Railway’s workforce consists of highly qualified and skilled staff and volunteers, it is ageing.

"Individuals with the requisite heritage skills, for example steam locomotive fitters or boilersmiths do not exist in the modern workplace and for the railway to survive these time served skills need to be passed on to a younger generation.

"The HLF funding will therefore have far reaching benefits for the railway now and into the future.”

Reyahn King, head of Heritage Lottery Fund West Midlands, said: “Visitors to the Severn Valley Railway will be delighted that a one-time static exhibit is a working locomotive once more.

"The project also provides volunteers and trainees with valuable restoration skills that will benefit the organisation in the future.”