NER A3 Class 0-4-0ST

The North Etorean Railway (NER) A3 Class 0-4-0ST was a class of thirty-one 0-4-0ST type steam locomotive designed for shunting. They all remained in service until the 1950s when withdrawals began, the last being withdrawn in 1973 from departmental stock.

The class was designed by G. H. Frye as a replacement for the Class A and A1 0-4-0 tender engines and the B1 2-4-0Ts; they were effectively a saddle-tank version of the Class A2. The A3s were designed for shunting in areas with sharp curves and was, while small, still capable of out performing many of the other classes they worked along side of; these environments were often dockyards and some of the suburban goods yards which had sprung up around the 1880s to serve factories in and around Redwick, Knightsbury and Cherringham. They were built in three batches, ten were built in 1894 with a further twelve following in 1897 (both at the Kilbourne Works of the NER) and a further batch was constructed by Sinclair, Addams & Co. in 1901. All locomotives survived into ENR days with the only modifications being dumb buffers and spark arrestors being fitted where needed with some receiving modified cabs to better suit the environment where they worked; though most remained unmodified.

Under ENR ownership, the A3s remained mostly within former NER territory; though by 1931 the class had been sent further afield to where they were needed as they were gradually displaced by more powerful locomotives. Though they would quickly find work elsewhere due to their small size but high tractive effort. Withdrawals of the class began around two decades later when ENR №40188 was written off following an accident which left the front of her frame bent. Over the next nineteen years, the A3s were gradually withdrawn and replaced with diesel and electric locomotives until the last (Departmental №29, Ex ENR - №40194 and Ex - NER №380) was withdrawn from service and preserved at Aleyeshire County Living Museum where she remains today; currently as a static exhibit though there are plans to restore her to operational condition to run on the short strech of track inside the museum's grounds to pull three old passenger coaches for visitors aswell as demonstration goods trains.