Number 30499 is the oldest of our two S15’s, having been one of the first batch of five ordered in January 1916, but not completed at Eastleigh until May 1920.  She was turned out as 499 in LSWR holly green goods livery and allocated to Nine Elms for heavy goods work.

Once part of the Southern Railway, at her first heavy overhaul in 1924/5, she was repainted into lined goods black livery as no. E499, but in 1931, she received Maunsell lined green in recognition of the S15’s regular passenger duties.  At this time, E499 also received her distinctive smoke deflectors.  The number reverted back to 499 in 1934, and in 1940 she joined the rest of the class at Feltham.  The next most obvious change was the replacement of the Urie stovepipe chimney with a Maunsell class U1 pattern chimney in 1941, when she was also repainted in wartime plain black livery.  For a short time during the war, 499 was loaned to the GWR and worked out of Old Oak Common.  After nationalisation of the railways, 499 received number 30499 and British Railways goods black in January 1949.

At the end of 1963, 30499 lost her original Urie double bogie 5,000 gallon tender (no. 3203) for an Ashford six-wheel 4,000 gallon tender (no. 882 from Maunsell S15 no. 30835).  Sadly, a few days later, 30499 was condemned on 5 January 1964 with 1.24 million miles in service to her credit.  Being stored at Feltham, 30499 was lucky in that she was sold to Woodham Brothers of Barry for £1,040, and started her journey to the South Wales scrapyard on June 1964.

30499 languished at Barry for sixteen years before losing her tender for a second time, when it was purchased to go with class U no. 31625, which left for the Mid-Hants Railway in 1980.  Earlier, the Urie Locomotive Society had purchased sister engine no. 30506 and moved it to the Mid-Hants Railway.  Once this engine was well on the way to returning to steam, a plan was put forward to purchase 30499 as a full set of spare parts.  In the event, 30499 became ours in 1980, but by then, with the intention of eventually returning her to steam.  A Maunsell double bogie 5,000 gallon tender no. 3223 of 1927 vintage was purchased from Barry to replace that lost earlier.

Since arriving at Ropley on the Mid-Hants Railway in 1983, work on 30499 has focussed on obtaining or making the missing parts required to return her to steam.  In 1996, 30499 was taken to Ian Riley Engineering at Bury on the East Lancs Railway, where her boiler no.755 was removed and donated to sister engine 30506, to allow that engine to extend its service on the Mid-Hants Railway to fourteen years.  The frames of 30499 have been overhauled and painted, and the wheels have been turned, but all still remain at Bury, waiting for space to be made available at Ropley for their return.  In the meantime, work at Ropley has concentrated on making good a suitable tender to couple with 30499 in the future.