The 100-ton locomotive Pendennis Castle was loaded aboard a freighter in Western Australia yesterday to be shipped back to England.

Richard Croucher, deputy chairman of the Great Western Society, and Mick Dean, general manager of Didcot Railway Centre, have been busy with other society members preparing it for its voyage halfway round the world from Perth to Bristol.

Earlier, mining company Hamersley Iron, owner of the celebrated Castle-class engine, handed it over as a generous gift to the GWS.

The locomotive, which in its heyday hauled the Cheltenham Flyer express through Oxfordshire, will undergo a major overhaul at Didcot, where it will become part of the collection of restored Great Western Railway rolling stock. A lottery grant of more than 37,000 has helped pay the 80,000 cost of shipping the engine back to the UK. It is due to arrive in Bristol on July 9.

Mr Dean, who flew to Australia with Mr Croucher, told the Oxford Mail from his hotel in Perth: "The locomotive was a fabulous sight.

"Pendennis Castle has been well looked after, though she needs a good overhaul."

The locomotive has spent 22 years in Australia since it was acquired by Hamersley Iron for employees who formed a railway historical society.

Because the line used by Pendennis Castle now carries large iron-ore trains, the company decided to dispose of the locomotive. Mr Dean and Mr Croucher's work to prepare the engine for its 13,000-mile voyage included greasing exposed parts of the locomotive to protect them from salt spray.

The two men, who were helped by a handful of volunteer members of the GWS living in Australia, also took possession of the heavy brass Pendennis Castle nameplates and whistle.

These valuable items will be airfreighted back to England to prevent their being stolen by souvenir hunters.