Third loco for Gwendraeth revivalists as cut- down 08 comes home
BURRY Port & Gwendraeth Valley Railway ( BP& GVR) revivalists have acquired one of the three surviving Class 08/ 9 shunters that were cut down for use on the line.
The North Dorset Railway at Shillingstone station in Dorset, which bought No. 08995 for restoration at auction in 2015 after it was declared surplus by DB Schenker, has sold it to the Gwendraeth Railway Society ( GRS).
The Class 08/ 9 locomotives were redesigned and modified at Landore Traction Maintenance Depot in Swansea between 1985- 87 by being given headlights and cut- down bodywork, which resulted in the overall height being reduced to
11 ft 1 0in for use on the freight line to Cwmmawr.
No. 08995, which operated most recently on projects such as the Manchester Metrolink, was initially bought in the knowledge that it is in need of a major general overhaul and the intention was to restore the locomotive back to full running order, so that in future it could be used at 5hillingstone. The 08/ 9, one of three survivors of the sub- class, has been stored for the last five years at haulier Andrew Good man's Moveright International yard, near Sutton Coldfield, awaiting restoration, as the required work is too complex to be undertaken at 5hillingstone.
Some work was carried out during this period by the fitters at the yard, but much more specialist treatment was required. Over the subsequent years it became increasingly apparent to Shillingstone trustees that the increasing cost and complex practicalities of restoring No. 08995 were no longer realistically within the means of their charity.
A fundraising and part owners' group was proposed and raised £ 10,700, but much more money would have been required to complete the restoration and deliver it to Shillingstone.
Sale and acquisition
Rather than continue to tie up funds in the project, the trustees decided to sell it and replace it with the smaller but fully operational Hudswell Clarke 0- 6- 0DM Dl 186 of 1959 Ashdown. It has been restored by Andrew Briddon at Peak Rail and is more suited to Shillingstone's current needs and capabilities.
Dl 186 was built for the Manchester Ship Canal, where it was first numbered 2001 and later D1 and named Ashdown. It was subsequently bought by Hunslet and rebuilt as works number 8526, before moving to a coal distribution depot in Newport,
Gwent, where it displaced ex- BR shunter D2181 and was renamed Pride of Gwent. Bought for preservation, it arrived at the former Butetown Historical Railway Society site in Cardiff Bay and later moved to the Vale of Glamorgan Railway when it was named after member Bill Caddick.
Sold on to the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway, it saw little use as it was regarded as unsuitable to the steep gradients. A locomotive exchange saw it moved to Peak Rail as part of Andrew's collection at Darley Dale, where it regained its original name.
A Shillingstone spokesman said: "When the North Dorset Railway is permitted to reopen after the Covid- 19 hiatus, it should not be too long until Ashdown is on site. This will be another important milestone
in the heritage railway's quest to become operational:'
The first section ofthe BP& GVR's nine- mile main line opened in 1869 and much ofthe railway was laid on the bed of a canal built by Thomas Kymer around 1768, giving it restricted loading gauge because of the low canal overbridges.
Loading gauge
The railway linked collieries and limestone pits to the sea at Kidwelly and later extended its network to include Burry Port, Trimsaran, a brickworks at Pwll and Sandy near Llanelli. It also at one stage worked the separate Gwendraeth Valleys Railway ( see map), and was later re- engineered by light railway empire builder Colonel Holman F Stephens, who upgraded the mineral route to public passenger- carrying standards.
Passenger services ended in 1953, and the last section of the BP& GVR closed on March 23, 1998. In the wake of the closure, in May 2002, a new Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley Railway Company Ltd was incorporated with a view to reviving the line. As outlined in Heritage Railway issue 44, an initial scheme involved regauging the mothballed line to accommodate continental and American rolling stock.
Metre gauge was identified for the revival of the route by the GRS because of the notorious low bridges which required the use of locomotives with cut- down cabs like the latter- day Class 08/ 9s. Indeed, talks between representatives of the new company and the Portugese national railway authorities about the acquisition of at
least five redundant steam and diesel locomotives and nine carriages began.
A first for Britain
However, the revival scheme has long since changed direction. The aim is now to develop the UK's firstvelo- rail ( rail bike) and supporting standard gauge heritage railway visitor attraction. Complex discussions have been completed to agree heads of terms of a lease for 99 years for a nominal rent for the branch and associated land and sidings and final legal agreements are in preparation, pending Network Rail and rail regulatory bodies completing the final industry sign off, as we closed for press.
Several strategies to acquire or build sufficient numbers of high- quality velo- rail vehicles are under appraisal. Options include purchase of an initial batch from existing suppliers in Continental Europe or the Far East. The currently preferred option is to design and build UK specific vehicles adapted for local climatic conditions ( primarily rain).
A waste recycling scheme is under consideration to recover and reuse components from scrap bicycles in collaboration with local third sector groups and training providers to generate local benefits and a cost effective sustainable supply of velorails for this project.
With regard to the classic heritage railway side of the project, the company now has a fleet of three locomotives.
The company bought the solesurviving original BP& GVR steam locomotive, Avonside 0- 6- 0ST
No. 1421 of 1900 Pontyberem, from the Great Western Society ( GWS) in 2009 and moved it to the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway for overhaul.
Pontyberem had been purchased new by the BP& GVR to replace the aging double Fairlies Mountaineer and Victoria which had operated the route for most of the previous 30 years since the time of the canal conversion in the mid 1860s. Pontyberem was later sold into colliery service in 1914, where it survived at Mountain Ash and Penrhiwceiber until preserved by the GWS and moved into storage at Didcot.
Another veteran acquired
Pontyberemw as followed there several months later by Swindon, 1960- built Class 03 No. 03141, one of the batch that also had cabs reduced in height to work on the BP& GVRI. t is one of six surviving Class 03 veterans of the line.
After withdrawal in 1985, the locomotive was bought for preservation, before being acquired by Cotswold Rail in 2000. In 2002, it moved to the Dean Forest Railway and was sold in 2005 to a member of the revivalist group and moved to the now- closed Swansea Vale Railway for storage. Little work was done on the locomotive there due to vandalism problems.
The acquisition of No. 08995 means that the BP& GVR revivalists' entire collection of three locomotives are veterans ofthe line they intend to restore.
GRS members will now consider options for undertaking the major overhaul of No. 08995 with a view to returning the working locomotive to the Gwendraeth Valley in time for the official launch ofthe project. In the interim, members will focus their attention on completing the restoration of the smaller No. 03141, which will need to be available to undertake the refurbishment of sections of the route.
The GRS is progressing steadily with restoring Pontyberem to its original condition. One of the locomotive's original Avonside worksplates appeared at auction and has now been reunited with the locomotive. Another lucky find was a pair of missing eccentric rods from the locomotive which had been mistaken for GWR items and are now also back with Ponyberem.
Also, the GRS has long- term plans to add a fourth former BP& GVR locomotive, even though it will be for static display only.
In spring 2004, as reported in issue 62, society members rediscovered the boiler barrels of Double Fairlie
0- 4- 4- 0T Mountaineer, which for over a century had been used as a water culvert in Burry Port. It is planned to recover the barrels at the basis of a full- scale static replica of this prototype locomotive, the remains of which make it the world's oldest surviving Fairlie.
The society's first phase of restoring the route is from Kidwelly ( on land adjacent to the main line junction) to Pontyates, with intermediate station halts at Trimsaren Road and Pont Newydd/ Glyn Abbey, giving a total distance of around five miles. The total distance of all planned restoration phases to Cwm Mawr via Pontyberem and Pont Henri is nine miles.
➔ Anyone who would like to join the GRS or donate towards its project is invited to contact Cymdeithas Rhilffordd Gwendraeth Railway Society, 2 Bridge Street, Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire, SA17 4UU, or via the group's Facebook page at www. facebook.com/gvrail/ Enquires may also be directed by email to Stutom64@ btinternet.com Cheques should be made payable to the Gwendraeth Railway Society. Alternatively, donations can be made via bank transfer to Nationwide Building Society, sort code 07-01-16, account number 43069113.