A CAMPAIGN has been launched to restore a locomotive to full, working condition, 36 years after it was retired.

Britannia class Pacific No 70013 Oliver Cromwell hauled the last steam train for British Rail on August 11, 1968.

It is currently a favourite at the National Railway Museum (NRM), in York, where it will be a star exhibit at the Railfest celebration of 200 years of railways between May 29 and June 6.

After the exhibition is over, the Oliver Cromwell is expected to be moved to the Great Central Railway, in Leicestershire, for restoration.

It should be restored to steam by 2008 and will then feature in a 40th anniversary celebration of its last journey, when it pulled the legendary Fifteen Guinea Special.

Steam Railway Magazine has launched a campaign to raise the £70,000 needed to pay for parts for the restoration.

The magazine's appeal is being backed by a range of incentives for donors.

They include certificates, footplate rides, behind-the-scenes tours at the NRM and train tickets.

Magazine editor Tony Streeter said: "Oliver Cromwell represents an historic landmark in the development of the railways and the end of the commercial steam age in this country.

"We would dearly love to see it working again in time for the anniversary of that last steam train.

"We are confident that our readers will once again support us in this historic project."

The overhaul of the locomotive, built in 1951, is a collaboration between the NRM, Steam Railway Magazine, Bressingham Steam Museum, the Loughborough-based Great Central Railway, thge 5305 Locomotive Association and Loughborough Standard Locomotives Group Limited.