Didcot’s ‘County’4-4-0 project moves to the SVR
THE GREAT Western Society, under fire from a section of its own membership for devoting too much of its resources to new-build locomotive projects and not enough to its existing steam fleet, has agreed to hand over construction of the proposed new £½ million Churchward ‘County’ 4-4-0 to an independent group.
Proposals to build the new locomotive - not at the society’s Didcot HQ but at the Severn Valley Railway, without recourse to either GWS funding or volunteer labour - are to be formally announced in the next few weeks by a group of handson enthusiasts now being recruited by railway journalist and former Steam Railway editor Gary Boyd-Hope, who will be the project manager. The Severn Valley Railway itself will have no financial input to the project either, but will simply host it, creating al fresco space for assembly of the new engine in Bridgnorth yard, as it has done for the past eight years with the 82045 Steam Locomotive Trust building the new BR Standard Class 3 2-6-2T. Great Western Society directors made a legal commitment to constructing the new 4-4-0 ‘County’ in an agreement signed in October 2005 with the Vale of Glamorgan Council, owner of the former Barry scrapyard locomotives known as ‘the Barry Ten’. The council undertook to make five of the locomotives - GWR ‘Heavy Freight’ 2-8-0 No. 2861, ‘Prairie’ No. 4115, ‘5205’ No. 5227, ‘Modified Hall’ No. 7927 Willington Hall and LMS ‘8F’ 2-8-0 No. 48518 - available for cannibalisation, in return for assurances that their parts would be used to construct a new Hawksworth ‘County’ 4-6-0 (No. 1014 County of Glamorgan, now well advanced at Didcot), and a new Churchward ‘County’ 4-4-0. Donor parts are also being used in the ongoing construction of the 6880 Betton Grange Society’s new ‘Grange’ 4-6-0 at the Llangollen Railway, most notably, the boiler from No. 7927 Willington Hall. Although the GWS will not finance or raise any cash appeals for the new 4-4-0 ‘County’, the project has more than a head start, with one benefactor making a donation thought to be in the region of £10,000 - sufficient to fund the cutting and profiling of the main frames and frontend extension frames. Additionally, the project will call on the unrestored ‘Swindon No. 4’ type boiler from Vale of Glamorgan donor engine No. 5227, a pair of 3ft 2in bogie wheels (one each culled from the pony trucks of Nos. 5227 and 2861), a set of axleboxes (from No. 2861), spring hanger brackets from ‘Prairie’ tank No. 4115, and the opportunity to use cylinder block and wheelset patterns which were made for another ongoing GWS newbuild project, ‘Saint’ 4-6-0 No. 2999 Lady of Legend. Steam Railway has learned that although discussions between the GWS and SVR on construction of the new Churchward ‘County’ at Bridgnorth began 18 months ago, it was only during the summer that the Severn Valley Railway plc board assented to the idea. There is, however, no formal agreement between the parties. Commented a spokesman for the GWS: “The circumstances here are a bit unusual. It’s what you might call ‘a different approach’ to new-build. Nothing has been written down, and at this stage, neither party is putting itself at risk.” The new 4-4-0 ‘County’ will be owned by the Great Western Society, but is unlikely to see a great deal of use at Didcot, running most of its mileage ‘on hire’ to other steam railways. Project Manager Gary Boyd-Hope, who edited Steam Railway magazine
between November 2010 and April 2014, is a steam locomotive owner and a committed preservationist with more than 30 years’ experience as a volunteer. Following the closure of Cadeby Light Railway, Leicestershire in 2005, he bought the ‘gate guardian’ Peckett 0-4-0ST ‘Teddy’ (W/No. 2012 of 1941), and restored it to full working order himself. In July this year, his former Royal Ordnance Factory (Llanishen, Cardiff) shunter shared the stage with LNER ‘Pacifics’ Flying Scotsman and Union of South Africa, at Shildon’s nine-day ‘Shed Bash’ event.