BREAKING UP ‘BRITANNIAS’
The demise of three scrapyard ‘7MTs’
It was a sad moment when a trio of the best-known and revered ‘Britannia’ 4-6-2s were coupled up for their final journey to the breaker’s yard – Nos. 70004 William Shakespeare, 70014 Iron Duke, and 70035 Rudyard Kipling. The date was March 11 1968, and Carlisle Kingmoor shed yard was being progressively cleared of redundant engines following the mass withdrawal of the class survivors at the end of the previous year. Two of them were former Stewarts Lane ‘Golden Arrow’ celebrities. Nos. 70004 and 70014 were engines that created quite a following in 1951 after they had been burnished to exhibition standard for their prestige workings that began that year. Before its transfer to the London Midland, No. 70035 had a reputation as a solid, fast performer on the Eastern Region’s Norwich-Liverpool Street ‘East Anglian’ expresses. It was a 100-mile last trip for the ‘Brits’ from Kingmoor to T.W. Ward’s yard at Inverkeithing, routed over what was then the most direct route, the ‘Waverley’ via Hawick, Galashiels and Edinburgh, which was in its final year of operation, and whose punishingly steep inclines would have been the stamping ground of the ‘Brits’ on Anglo-Scottish freights. The elimination of all three engines was immediate, and was recorded on camera by Fife enthusiast Graeme Fraser on a chance visit to Ward’s (which he recalls was reached on his trusty Lambretta scooter). Compared with the company’s other processing plants, such as in Sheffield and South Wales, it was a modest yard, credited with taking in fewer than 50 locomotives over the space of a decade, and the most notable arrival in summer 1963 was the final ‘D11/2’ ‘Director’ No. 62685 Malcolm Graeme after the end of its steam heating duties at Edinburgh’s Waverley Hotel. Individual breakers have their own cutting techniques, which normally involved first slicing open the boiler to remove the valuable copper tube plate. It then seems that Ward’s men severed the frames. On at least Nos. 70014 and 70035, the firebox and cab would be perched on the rear set of driving wheels and rear truck for the next shift to complete the task. As is well reported, No. 70014 lasted in service almost until the final day of ‘Brit’ workings, being noted on the 1.10pm CarlisleSkipton service on December 29 1967. It was less than two years out of overhaul, and Lancashire businessman Jim Morris was offered the engine for £3,900, but he was deterred by BR’s insistence that he find a private site and that it could never run again on the main line. He was not to know that the steam ban would be lifted just four years later. No. 70004, exhibited at the Festival of Britain in 1951, was a railtour favourite and the last passenger engine to receive attention at Darlington North Road Works before its closure in 1965. Its last recorded working was the 3.08am Carlisle-Ayr parcels on December 30 1967. No. 70035, one of the last outshopped from Crewe and, just weeks before preserved No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell, was on the same scrap tender list, issued on January 11 1968. Their sale for scrap was completed on February 6, along with sister engine No. 70022 Tornado and ‘Black Fives’ Nos. 44674 and 45236.