The year 2025 is not only the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth and the 80th anniversary of VJ Day - it also marks the 90th anniversary of someone’s arrival in Alton, writes Jane Hurst.

In June 1865 there was an application by brewer Henry Hall for a railway siding from the Alton to Winchester railway near the bridge at Ash Dell along land between Upper and Lower Turk Street, which was granted.

Although the line belonged to the Halls and then Courage, they allowed trains to bring in wagons for Crowley’s, which was on the site of Sainsbury’s and later became Watney’s. These were uncoupled and taken across Upper Turk Street and into the Crowley building. These trains ran daily.

In 1934, a small shunting engine was ordered from the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds for Courage of Alton - and she was delivered by rail to Alton station on July 22, 1935. She has the Hunslet number 1786, weighs six tons 12 cwt, is just over 14ft long and has four equal sized wheels. The cab is open, there is no horn and the engine is a two cylinder Lister diesel which has to be started with a handle. She can go at 7mph and cost £620.

Here in Alton, she shunted wagons of supplies and beer to and from the main line at Alton station. Peak production was in about 1950, when 250,000 barrels were produced, but malting ceased at Courage’s in 1951 and stocks then came here in lorries.

By the 1960s the little shunter does not seem to have been used, and was put up for sale in September 1967 in the Railway Magazine. She was acquired by the Middleton Railway Trust Ltd, which operates the Middleton Railway near Leeds - the oldest continuously working railway in the country.

She made her way into Alton station driven by Charlie Porter, who said: “I’m sorry to see a bit of old Courage’s go.” At Alton station she was put on to a low loader and taken back north to where she had been made. Here she took part in a Forty Years of the Diesel celebration and was given the name Courage. She also got called Sweet Pea.

According to a railway website, she can only operate in conjunction with another engine due to a lack of vacuum brakes, hence she is not often used with passengers but is on view. She is said to be the world’s smallest standard gauge diesel ever built, and so holds an important place in railway history - and Alton’s history too.

Here in Alton we have been able to help Sweet Pea’s new owners, as we are lucky that we have had keen photographers in the town who recorded her. When the Middleton Railway Trust wanted to know what she had looked like originally, we were able to send pictures.

In May 1994, Sweet Pea made a return visit to Alton. Unloaded at Alresford, she came down to Alton at 7mph and the public had the chance to ride in the brake van. She then returned to Alresford and was driven back north again. That was more than 30 years ago, and July 2025 is the 90th anniversary of her delivery to Alton. Wouldn’t it be lovely to see her here again one day?

On July 19 Sweet Pea will be part of the Railway 200 event at the Middleton Railway when she will be relaunched following a full repaint and overhaul, and a local primary school choir will sing a birthday song dedicated to her. It will be the first time that she has hauled passengers on the line for several decades.

Sweet Pea shares her birthday with the Stockton & Darlington Railway, which opened 200 years ago, and the 65th anniversary of the Middleton Railway being preserved.

For more information visit middletonrailway.org.uk/hunslet-no-1786-courage-sweet-pea and middletonrailway.org.uk/etn/happy-birthday-sweet-pea-90-years-of-hunslet-1786/