ZEROES TO HEROES
How four decaying vintage carriages underwent a record restoration
After a lifetime of passion for railways, including the privilege of leading the NRM in developing the ‘Mallard 75’ series of events, I had always believed that there was an international market for British railway expertise delivered through a formally constituted company. My considerable involvement with the Sierra Leone National Railway Museum helped reinforce this view, so following completion of my contract as managing director of Surf Snowdonia (the world’s first artificial surfing centre, in North Wales) I decided to set up my own company to deliver the aforementioned expertise. Our title is The International Railway Heritage Consultancy Ltd (IRHC), but my business partner Helen Ashby and associate consultants (Richard Gibbon, Professor Colin Divall and Stephen Middleton) didn’t want the UK domestic market to be ignored. We have completed several overseas assignments, most notably in Argentina and Israel, but we have also recently undertaken a major Arts Council-funded project to write new guidelines for the conservation of large working objects, at the behest of The Association of British Transport and Engineering Museums (ABTEM). Assistance has been rendered to the Statfold Barn Railway to assist them in acquiring museum status, and we are working pro bono with the Bala Lake Railway to extend the line by three quarters of a mile into Bala itself. So railway preservation in the UK, as well as overseas, was very much in mind when we established the consultancy, but none of us thought we would end up venturing into the world of television to the extent that we did! I was initially contacted in July 2016 by Yasmin Pasha at Brown Bob Productions, a TV production company specialising in programmes for major UK broadcasters. It had recently produced a series featuring Paul Merton called Secret Stations and was keen to maintain the momentum with another railway series in a similar genre. The idea was simple enough: tell the passenger experience of railways through the ages using a number of representative coaches as objects to develop the stories, then assemble the stock into a single train for a grand finale. It seemed straightforward enough. At this point my team swung into action, researching coaches that might fit the bill, and mustering vehicles representative of the periods 1840-1870, 1870-1900, 1900-1950 and 1950-present day. In addition, we also began to develop historical and technological threads and themes that could be explored to bring to life the improving experience of the railway from the passengers’ perspective, focusing on the technological, safety, convenience, comfort, speed and leisure improvements achieved over time. It was this focus on passengers that motivated our team the most.
BROADER APPEAL
Many railway programmes (and there have been many of late) have tended to focus on technology and motive power, and we welcomed the opportunity to appeal to a much broader audience; one which could relate their own experience of rail travel to the stories we would tell and to perhaps help generate greater understanding and appreciation of how we got to where we are now. The creation of a shortlist of carriage candidates was thus quickly achieved, and after a few weeks we had drafted a comprehensive story board of themes for the programme producers to consider. There was nothing at this stage which would remotely stress my team given the quality and experience of the people we have.
Then the phone rang! The Brown Bob team are undoubtedly imaginative, energetic, keen to push the boundaries and not risk-averse in the interest of great television. That much became apparent to me when I was asked whether it was possible to not simply to use existing restored carriages, but to take four completely unrestored vehicles and restore them from a standing start… in six months. This was a major change of direction, one which – if we were to pull it off – would require every ounce of ingenuity, planning ability, energy and – yes – sheer willpower to make it work, especially as they still wanted to run them as a single train on completion. Little did I know it at the time but this was the start of a project which would eventually be to carriages what ‘Mallard 75’ was to steam locomotives. Such a monumental change of plan required more than telephone conversations, so Stephen Middleton and I jumped on a train to London the next morning to discuss the options with Yasmin. Stephen was essential for this encounter, given the carriage restoration expertise and knowledge of his company Stately Trains. I was keen to explore the full implications of such a venture, to ensure that Yasmin was fully aware of the likely obstacles and risks involved, and most importantly to make plain that there would have to be a major injection of cash into each vehicle if it were to be genuinely achieved within the stipulated six months. It is worth noting here that what you see in each episode is actually what happened. The tightening of rules in broadcasting over recent years means you risk prosecution if you ‘cheat’ the viewer, so six months is just that, six months. Before we left the meeting, I hazarded a guess at a price which
would have to be met for each carriage in order to make this attractive to the owning organisations we might wish to approach (this was subsequently improved on) and also made a commitment that if the money discussed could be found then there was a strong possibility that we could make this work. Now the hard part began. Where could we find four suitable vehicles from the agreed eras, and would the owners be willing (mad enough?!) to take part? My other early concern was how to keep all of this secret given the need to keep the project very closely under wraps almost until completion. That would not be easy in the notoriously leaky world of preservation.
FANTASTIC FOUR
Step One included conducting our own assessment of the likely candidates. Using a variety of open source material, personal knowledge, and best judgement we gradually generated a shortlist. The shortlist was always – to my consternation – very short because few candidates met the requirements: a suitable vehicle in poor condition; an existing track record in delivering high-quality restorations; an ability to absorb any costs which exceeded the agreed budget; a willingness to legally commit themselves to the six-month timeframe (which, with the regular interruptions caused by filming, was frighteningly short); but importantly, could we work with them and did we trust them to deliver? As we developed the shortlist it became apparent that the more organisations we dealt with, the greater the risk of news leaking out, especially as only four candidate vehicles would be successful. Time available for this phase was short so we confined the candidates to just six organisations, accepting the likelihood that there were very many other suitable carriages out there but that we simply did not have the time to research them all. Having exchanged myriad letters, emails and documents with the various railways concerned, we decided to hit the road and visit each candidate in turn to both present our plans (in one case to the railway’s entire board), and for them to convince us that they were up to it and keen to participate. Soon after we started, our shortlist dropped to five – a tense situation with little flexibility – and then it reduced to four. Those remaining candidates all had to prove their suitability or we would be up the proverbial creek. We could, of course, have found other candidates but time was short. Fortunately, the team’s preparatory analysis had been a brilliantly accomplished filtering exercise, significantly reducing the risk of a small shortlist, and we agreed that the successful participants would be:
1864 Isle of Wight Railway four-wheel Oldbury No. 10 (Isle of Wight Steam Railway). 1887 (conversion of an 1885-built vehicle) LSWR Royal Saloon (Stately Trains, Embsay). 1912 Great Northern Railway Gresley First/Third Brake Composite No. 229 (Llangollen Railway). 1960 Metropolitan Cammell First Class Kitchen Pullman Eagle (Tyseley Locomotive Works).
TANGIBLE LEGACY
We then completed our report for the Brown Bob team’s managing director, Nicki Gottlieb, who by now had brought to the fore their creative director, Jacqueline Hewer, and arranged a grand tour for their team to our proposed candidate vehicles. We had clearly met expectations as their excitement levels on being shown increasingly dilapidated carriages heightened with each visit. From their perspective, the worse the visual condition the better, as this would make excellent TV! Our selection was approved, and the Brown Bob team departed to make their pitch to Channel 4, including the need for a major subsidy for each vehicle. We waited a few weeks and then received the positive news that Channel 4 had given it the green light. At this point I too was beginning to appreciate better the significance of the commitment Channel 4 had just made. There have been many railway programmes over the years but few have left a tangible legacy. In this case, I could see that not only were Brown Bob and Channel 4 about to make a TV programme, they were actually going to make history by providing the UK preservation scene with four restored coaches, each of great merit. Moreover, the programme, if presented in an intelligent and sympathetic way, would be a great opportunity to celebrate the quality of British railway preservation restoration skills more broadly and to place a spotlight on the people who make it happen. I had no doubt that the subject matter would receive the gravitas it deserved, having got a powerful sense from both Brown Bob and Channel 4 that their objective (in their own words) “…was for everyone involved to emerge as heroes.” The announcement that Peter Snow would front the series, ably assisted by Henry Cole – an engineering expert and TV personality – convinced me that the railways taking part could be reassured they would not be subject to ridicule, and that their efforts might also have major positive commercial benefits accruing from the extensive TV coverage. We were all set to go.
SLEEPLESS NIGHTS
Work at all four sites began in April 2017, and all concerned were acutely aware that six months was a very short period of time, but there was a determination not to cut corners or compromise on standards, particularly as there was the added incentive of realising that each team was flying the flag for their respective parent organisation in a very public way. Full-time staff had, by necessity, been drafted in to meet the deadline as it was clear to everyone that this would literally have been impossible on volunteer labour alone (although the latter was still much in evidence and played an important role). Time management had to be ruthless, as a single lost day could mean the difference between success or failure. The teams were conscious that although they believed they had a good initial picture of what they were facing, in each case the inevitable unexpected problems surfaced to bite their ankles. The programmes do, I believe, a very good job of showing the quite imaginative and heroic efforts required to overcome the obstacles. My role throughout was to stay in close touch with each project, to visit them all every month, to help identify remedies to seemingly insurmountable problems, and to provide Brown Bob with a monthly written report assessing progress against the plan. Each carriage at some stage or other provided me with a few sleepless nights, but the sheer adrenalin involved and – yes – fun of it all made this a particularly satisfying project. As the restorations proceeded, work began on assembling the film material into rough programme order, complete with voiceover. One member of my team double-checked these clips (and subsequently the final products) for factual and technical accuracy. As clips came in they were distributed to Helen, Richard and Colin, and I would convey our observations to the production team. Peter Snow and Henry Cole proved an inspired double act – two very different personalities who made a highly effective partnership, and who quickly became accepted by the restoration teams.
EPISODE 1: TEAK PRACTICE
At a distance of several hundred yards, the Gresley Brake Composite No. 4229 at the Llangollen Railway, looked in reasonable condition, but as you got closer to it, you began to realise that the devil really was in the detail of this Great Northern survivor. Yet there was so much to build on, such as original teak panels dating from when the coach was constructed, and even a photograph of it in service in the 1920s on the East Coast Main Line. It was, however, likened to a teak skip by some members of the Llangollen team, having been used as a dump for masses of unwanted material. There were no surviving compartments, and this was a very big vehicle. In terms of sheer volume of work, this was, therefore, the coach presenting the highest risk to the overall filming timetable and in the early stages of its restoration it just kept adding to my list of concerns. Even the lads themselves began to wonder whether the problems would ever stop surfacing: bogie pivot castings required extensive surgery, the roof was significantly rotten under the canvas, and the corridor gangway ends required complete replacement. There were myriad other minor but cumulatively significant problems to be dealt with. But I needn’t have worried. Under the able direction of Carriage & Wagon works manager John Davies, and the vehicle’s owner and Llangollen Chairman Peter Lund, the ‘Llan lads’ seemed to get better and more determined as the problems surfaced and then, in turn, were dealt with. Many people would have buckled under the pressure, but this lot just kept at it, laughing at the problems. The result is worth the effort. These are the kind of guys I would go to war with – they just knuckled down and did the job. They did their railway – and Wales – proud.
Under the direction of Project Leader Peter Jardine, the transformation of the Oldbury coach body at Havenstreet in Episode 2 is visually stunning, but the Isle of Wight Steam Railway decided from the outset that they wanted to go the whole hog and build all-new timber frames. Mark Brinton designed the frames based on original drawings and the decision was taken to compromise slightly by using laminated ‘engineered’ wood as opposed to raw timber, thus improving the strength and durability of the frames, while retaining raw oak for the headstocks. The completed underframe and chassis components look spectacular, but this added element of the project put the team under a lot of stress, particularly as the timber components were delayed coming from the manufacturer. Although physically the smallest vehicle in our restoration fleet, nevertheless the sheer painstaking attention to detail and the utter determination not to compromise on Isle of Wight standards meant that the team was working literally up to the very last second of the allocated time. The completed restoration has given the railway its own talisman vehicle in that the Oldburys were the first carriages purposebuilt for the Isle of Wight, as opposed to bringing in second-hand stock from the mainland, and it is to be hoped that this will now kick-start the restoration of the other Oldburys at Havenstreet waiting patiently for their turn. The transformation of the Oldbury is one of the defining moments of the programme.
EPISODE 3: THE EAGLE HAS LANDED
First Class Kitchen Car Eagle, featured in Episode 3, was a former NRM-owned vehicle, de-accessioned to Vintage Trains at Tyseley many years ago. It was in very poor internal and external condition and had seen much better days. What I liked about this project was that it is intended for the main line as part of Vintage Trains’ intended future operations, as opposed to the preserved railway existence planned for the other three, so it provided a good contrast. Fortuitously, one of my team, Richard Gibbon, was intimately involved with Eagle when he was chief engineer at York so he was able to give it an expert assessment before we shortlisted it. Part of Richard’s inspection was to double-double check that all asbestos had indeed been removed before being taken out of NRM ownership – which it had. This was another big project in terms of sheer volume of work to be undertaken, but it was also the one where I can honestly say I had few concerns about completion. Tyseley is renowned for the quality of its work, and its prodigious appetite for sustained effort, and its people are professional to the core. It was a small team in comparison with the others, comprising Dave Thornton, Stuart Compton, Nigel Hughes and Les Simpson, with management support from Bob Meanley, and they took to the job with alacrity, timing completion perfectly and seemingly without effort. Ben Mason was an especially entertaining catering manager and chef, his crowning glory being the interaction between him and Henry Cole when the kitchen lights fail in Berwyn Tunnel! Although the unveiling of each carriage on completion was impressive in the case of all four vehicles, I have to confess that the sheer size, bulk and impressive exterior and interior finish of Eagle left me utterly emotional and speechless.
EPISODE 4: VICTORIA’S SECRET
Stephen Middleton is well known as an accomplished and relatively quick carriage restorer, but even he would admit that six months was a short space of time for him to restore Queen Victoria’s LSWR Royal Saloon of 1885. This vehicle was a remarkable survivor, having been incorporated into a house during the 1930s, but having lost almost the whole of one side of its body and many of its internal fittings. For the last few years it had been standing on the ground in the car park at Bolton Abbey station, protected from the elements by a large plastic tarpaulin which, contrary to intuition, had kept it remarkably dry and well-preserved. Stephen’s restoration team was small yet perfectly formed, and included his wife, Qiuying, daughter Honey and other staff at Embsay – most notably Wendy Anderson. Outside contractors replaced the missing sides and re-panelled the outer skin, but fundamentally the restoration was under the single-minded control of Stephen. It was a brilliant collective effort by him and his team, with attention to detail a central pillar of its success. In order to guarantee absolute historical accuracy, we got in touch with Buckingham Palace through an old Army friend of mine, who is comptroller to the Queen, Lieutenant Colonel Sir Andrew Ford, in order to get Royal Household permission to use Queen Victoria’s Royal Cypher on the coach. We also visited the Garter King of Arms at the College of Arms to seek guidance on the appropriate cypher for the doors the Queen would have used personally. A visit to Queen Victoria’s Royal Saloon at the NRM was also kindly agreed in order to seek inspiration for the fixtures and fittings. The outcome of this restoration is undoubtedly stunning – both in what was achieved so quickly and in the quality of the finish – and overnight its completion doubled the number of operational LSWR coaches in preservation.
GRAND FINALE
Once filming of the various restoration projects had been completed we were in the hands of Andrew Goodman of Moveright International to assemble all the carriages at Llangollen (the location we had agreed for the filming of the final episode) with the exception of the Gresley which, of course, was already there. This was accomplished efficiently, including the Oldbury’s crossing of the Solent by ferry (the first time it had left the Isle of Wight since 1864), although I felt sorry for Andrew when the rear steering unit electrics failed while on the River Dee road bridge in Llangollen while conveying the Pullman. These things happen! From the outset, we had been planning how to operate these diverse vehicles in a single train. There were several challenges. The only coaches that could be coupled with a buckeye were the Pullman and the Gresley. The LSWR Royal Saloon was quite a tall vehicle – would it fit under the bridges at the Llangollen? And the Oldbury – exactly as built – had no brakes! We needed to come up with a safe and imaginative plan to allow all these to be coupled into a single 25mph-capable train, and to be able to carry passengers, even though the latter had all been involved in the restoration process and were therefore ‘non-paying’. And whatever we came up with had to be acceptable to the Llangollen Railway’s operational management team.
STANDARD FARE
I was keen for the train to be steam-hauled and I had requested Llangollen-based Standard ‘4MT’ 2-6-4T No. 80072, as this was era-compatible with Eagle which would always be the lead vehicle when filming. I also planned that I be given control of the assembled train personally for testing the day before final filming in order to judge how the vehicles behaved in relation to one another. We overcame the challenge of the unbraked Oldbury by simply fitting a vacuum through pipe which would connect the preceding vehicle to a GWR ‘Toad’ brake van on the rear, which I proposed was an appropriate compromise in the interests of safe braking power. The order in which the coaches would be mustered when filming was therefore always to be in reverse chronological order behind No. 80072: Eagle (1960), the Gresley (1912), LSWR Saloon (1887), Oldbury (1864), augmented by a GWR ‘Toad’ brake van. For the non-filming return trips, I required that the Oldbury be shunted to the rear of the train so that the weight of three full-size heavy coaches would not strain the timber frames, with the ‘Toad’ again on the very end. This led to the sight of a 1960 Pullman and an 1864 Oldbury running coupled together – very appropriate given that Metro-Cammell was a direct descendant of the Oldbury company! Trials took place, initially with Richard Gibbon in the ‘Toad’, looking down at the coupling with the Oldbury from the veranda. I was on the footplate of our engine for the test day, GWR ‘Large Prairie’ No. 5199, in radio contact with Richard who would advise when we should add a further 5mph to our speed, having departed Llangollen initially at walking pace. The Oldbury behaved impeccably and at 25mph was a pleasure to travel in, a credit to the Havenstreet team who put it together. Our driver for the test day on No. 5199, Graham Hoyland, and Fireman Paul Reynolds, could not have been more patient and cooperative on this most unusual of operating days, but secretly I think we were all actually really enjoying ourselves – even having a good laugh at yours truly chasing a stray sheep in front of the train for over a mile. The rest of the trial was spent checking clearances and practising the necessary shunting manoeuvres, and then we were all set for the big day.
EMOTIONAL FINALE
Brown Bob had taken the trouble to gather together virtually all those involved in making the programme to take part in the grand finale, to meet for the first time and to discuss their respective challenges. After a very good celebratory dinner the previous night, we all assembled at Llangollen station for the main event. Episode 5 gives a very good feel of the character and fun of the day and, in my view, reflects very well on the young (and not so young!) men and women without whom our precious railway preservation movement would wither on the vine. The moment we steamed out of Llangollen station to the strains of See the Conquering Hero Comes, played by the Llangollen Silver Band, was a powerfully emotional moment, marking the climax of an amazing project delivered by amazing people, and I must pay additional tribute to Channel 4 and Brown Bob whose vision and willingness to take a calculated risk has produced an amazing TV series. They were genuinely a great pleasure to work with. And the legacy? Well, the railways concerned will undoubtedly benefit from some remarkable publicity that money could not buy. UK railway preservation now has four more historically important operational carriages than it had a year ago. And the British public are better informed and, hopefully, more enthused, about Britain’s glorious railway story. Bring on the next one! Further information on The International Railway Heritage Consultancy Ltd can be found at www.internationalrailheritage.com