STEAM engine enthusiast Billy Treloar could be heading for South Africa next Easter - thanks to a century-old steam engine dating back to the Boer War.
The businessman, from Haltwhistle, Northumberland, is the proud owner of the last surviving engine used by British forces in the second Boer War between 1899 and 1902.
He paid £110,000 for the Fowler three-speed road loco and spent another £100,000 restoring it to its former glory over the last five years.
And when he put the 8.5-tonne engine on display at the Corbridge Steam and Vintage Rally yesterday, one of the first admirers on the scene was Major Tim Pennett of the Blyth-based 101 Northumbrian Regiment.
Major Pennett is taking 30 men to South Africa next Easter for a 110th-anniversary re-enactment of the Boer War.
And now he has invited delighted Billy to join them – and see for himself the area the gleaming engine covered in its pomp all those years ago.
Major Pennett said: “Billy has carried out the restoration of what is the only survivor of 46 such engines used by British forces in the Boer War.
“We are planning a re-enactment and Battlefield Tour over a number of sites there next Easter, and taking 30 soldiers, some of whom have recently served in Afghanistan.
“I was put in contact with Billy by a mutual colleague and have loved seeing the engine – in fact, I’m probably the first military officer to have set foot on it in the last 100 years.
“Although we cannot manage to take the engine back over there, we have offered Billy the chance to come with us and see the places the engine would have been used.”
