The train arriving at platform number two at Sutton station may be a little late – approximately 50 years behind schedule.

Sutton taxpayers have bizarrely owned a 144-year-old, 28-tonne, 26ft, A1 class green steam engine for more than five decades – although the locomotive has never set a wheel in the borough since its purchase.

In the strangest story this year, the Sutton Guardian can reveal the engine, named Sutton, was bought by the now dissolved Sutton and Cheam Borough Council in 1964 for £750 – the equivalent of about £25,000 today.

It originally intended to put it on a plinth to pay homage to the part the railway played in Sutton’s development, as part of a multi-million revamp of the town centre.

But plans to house it outside the civic offices, in the town square, or outside Sutton station all failed.

The locomotive has spent the past 47 years on loan to heritage railways around the country.

Now it is in pieces at the Spa Valley Railway in Kent – with many people scratching their heads as to how it was ever thought it would be of meaningful use to residents.

Tory councillor Tony Shields said: “The important question is at this time of austerity why we own a train and whether this train is an asset that we can make money from?”

The origin of the engine came to light last week after Councillor Moira Butt asked the council about the engine.

In 1964 the council admitted it had bought it without knowing where or how it would house the engine.

The purchase was sanctioned by Andrew William Letts, then head of the council’s finance committee, who went on to become Sutton’s first mayor.

A leader in the defunct Sutton Herald newspaper in 1964 said: “[The council] has exposed itself to the risk of ridicule and protest at what could easily be misinterpreted as sentimental extravagance.”

The engine was first kept at the Kent and East Sussex Railway, where it went on static display at Tenterden station.

Sutton Council even employed a locomotive manager, train enthusiast Martin French, on a peppercorn £1 yearly salary to ensure its upkeep, and explore whether residents could get cheap days out on the train, or if it could be visited by schoolchildren.

But in 1993 it was discovered by Mr French to have become surplus to requirements and was being left outside to rust.

He found it a home at the SPA railway, where it is being given a full overhaul for free on condition they keep it for 10 years.

It is unlikely it will ever make it to Sutton as the cost of upkeep is so high.

Mr French said: “I think Sutton Council made the right decision to give a working life to the engine they had inherited, rather than a static existence on a plinth.”

Councillor Graham Tope, Sutton Council’s executive member for community safety, leisure and libraries, said: “We look forward to [the engine’s] restoration, which is not costing a penny of taxpayers’ money.

“In the past, there used to be days when families had days out on the locomotive and I hope that can be repeated.”

FACT FILE:

Full name: LB&SCR A1X Terrier No. 32650 Sutton.

One of 50 A1 Class locomotives, destined by William Stroudley and built between 1872 and 1880.

"Sutton" was originally the L.B and S.C.R 50 Whitechapel, built at Brighton in 1876.

First worked in south London suburban services.

Finally withdrawn by British Rail in 1963.

Wheel Diameter - 4ft 0in.

Length - 26ft 0½in (12ft wheelbase).

Weight in working order - 28 tons.

Boiler Pressure - 150 PSI.