A 90-year-old steam locomotive which helped bring fresh water to Bradford is being lovingly restored at a cost of £95,000.

The engine hauled cement, supplies and workers up to Scar House reservoir in the Dales as the new water source was being constructed in the 1920s and 1930s.

The locomotive was named "Illingworth" after one of Bradford's most respected sons, William Illingworth, who opened the reservoir in 1936 as part of the Nidd Valley Water Supply Scheme, still Bradford's water source.

The Illingworth locomotive is now in the final throws of a ten-year restoration and could be running again on the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway by February.

After withdrawal in 1957, the locomotive survived scrap and spent 40 years as a rusting hulk passing through several owners until Stephen Middleton, of Harrogate, stepped in.

Mr Middleton, who formed the Friends of Illingworth group in 1997, said: "I found it in bits in Norfolk in the back of someone's garden and I felt it was such an important part of Yorkshire's history that it would be a shame to leave it.

"We hired two lorries and a crane and brought it back. Initial estimates suggested it would cost £20,000 to restore it but it has been frighteningly expensive.

"So far, it has cost £95,000 and it has been a nightmare."

Built in 1916, it was diverted for use by the Ministry of Munitions at Gretna Green in the First World War.

Bradford Corporation bought it in 1922 to work trains over the Nidd Valley Light Railway. It was initially named "Mitchell" after the waterworks engineer who was overseeing the reservoir project but was renamed Illingworth.

It later worked on the Ebbw Vale steelworks in Wales, on Workington breakwater in Cumbria and at a power station.

Different parts of the locomotive are being restored at various locations. The boiler was sent to Israel Newton & Sons boiler specialists in Bradford.

Bradford historian Andrew Bolt said: "Illingworth is one of our true heroes of the city. His importance is clear. Not many people had trains named after them. It was quite an honour."

e-mail: will.kilner@bradford. newsquest.co.uk