TYSELEY AT 50
Tyseley will throw its doors open again in September, exactly 50 years after it held its first public event. MICHAEL WHITEHOUSE charts its remarkable rise.
Celebrating 84E’s half-century
Long before the fires were dropped from the steam locomotives hauling the last BR steam trains on August 4 1968, and the famed ‘Fifteen Guinea Special’ on August 11, Clun Castle and a few other lucky express steam locomotives had started running over the nationalised railway network in private ownership. In the summer of 1967, almost as an act of defiance a year before the end, Gerry Fiennes, then general manager of the Eastern Region, arranged a ‘jape’ with ‘Clun’, Sir Nigel Gresley and Flying Scotsman running excursions all over the region, along the East Coast Main Line and out of Leeds over Shap. Dick Hardy was assigned to manage the operation. Gleaming green and blue express locomotives running fast and climbing hills caught the imagination, but they were shortly to be confined to shed when the infamous BR steam ban finally arrived in August 1968 and No. 4472 soon took the hint and crossed the Atlantic to the United States.
Those who had acquired these obsolete steam locomotives were not content to keep them in a ‘zoo’ or just run them on preserved railways, but what was to be done? One initial idea was to combine efforts and base all the ‘main liners’ at Didcot, as the former GWR locomotive depot was available. But, strange as it may now seem, this was simply too far for some people to drive on a Sunday afternoon to see the growing collection, which had now increased to include ‘Jubilee’ Kolhapur and also Brian Hollingsworth’s ‘Black Five’ No. 5428 ‘Eric TreacyÕ. So my father, Pat Whitehouse, began thinking about staying put at Tyseley. This GWR depot was, by then at least, a temporary home and one we knew well, with all three locomotives and two engineer’s saloon coaches living in the GWR coaling stage building, extended a little and fitted out with a tool room, all on a six-month tenancy while we
watched the passenger locomotive roundhouse being demolished. The trick was to make Tyseley our permanent home.
Being a main board director of construction firm Cubitts, Pat Whitehouse was well used to business dealings and, with his endeavours for the Dart Valley Railway and running small GWR tank engines on Stephenson Locomotive Society specials, he had come to know a wide range of people who were influential and sympathetic to the cause. And, after all, BR still had many people who knew how steam locomotives worked, plus the preserved examples were largely still in good condition and had current boiler tickets. Indeed, the stores at Tyseley shed still functioned until the depot closed and then its contents, together with what remained at Leamington, Worcester, Gloucester and other GWR depots was acquired and split between the DVR and Tyseley. The cottage industry of maintaining express steam locomotives after BR had finished with them had begun.
‘PesT NIGHTs’
Pat gathered his friends around him and we had many ‘pest nights’ (as my mother used to call them) sitting in the dining room, plotting. My dad’s friends included influential people from the Birmingham community, including people from the Post
& Mail newspaper, the city’s science museum and, eventually, even the city leaders themselves. Even as a lad of only 16, I was allowed to sit in as long as I did not say too much, so I was able to witness the birth of steam’s future. I clearly remember one of these sessions, sitting next to Terry Miller, then chief engineer of traction and rolling stock for the British Railways board, when we were discussing how to try to persuade BR to change its mind; Terry was exceptionally supportive of realistic plans and, of course, knew all the right people. Initially, it was a case of ‘five steps to the Queen’; if you wanted to meet someone, then find someone else who could introduce you or, better still, plead the case on your behalf. And so it was that the Tyseley open days began. We began to ‘push the envelope’ a little at a time.
It seemed a reasonable argument (to us anyway!) to suggest to BR that a joint open day should be held at Tyseley to showcase the best of the old alongside the new. By then, both the freight roundhouse and ‘factory’ workshop at the depot had been flattened to enable the construction of a new diesel depot and workshop. BR would receive 50% of the profits of the open day. Remarkably, they agreed and our two express steam locomotives were even allowed out onto the goods loop line to top-and-tail a shuttle passenger train; the run was short but steep. The barks of a double-chimneyed ‘Castle’ and the roar of a ‘Jubilee’ were heard once more and some 20,000 people came to visit the depot. Flying Scotsman, then the only steam locomotive still permitted to run, joined the party arriving with an excursion and even took a train out to Leamington and back with tickets only bookable at the open day. The event ran safely, thousands of people enjoyed themselves and money was made. Honour was satisfied and the future had begun.
The evenT ran safely, Thousands of people enjoyed Themselves and money was made
By stealth and persuasion, Pat persuaded BR to replicate these open days at other places: Stratford-upon-Avon, London Cricklewood and Liverpool Allerton. To get to these events, an amazing entourage was created: a Class 45 diesel, Clun Castle, a GWR engineer’s saloon, ‘Jubilee’ No. 5593 Kolhapur, an LMS engineer’s saloon, ‘5MT’ No. 5428 and a BR blue and grey brake coach. With locomotive regulators pinned so they could only be cracked open for lubrication purposes, the cavalcade set off. Still being at school I only made the trip to Liverpool Allerton – but what a trip it was! Riding on the footplate of Kolhapur running up the WCML near Runcorn, the driver of the Class 45 simply leaned out of his window, raised his arm to the sky and shut the diesel down. The drivers of the steam locomotives gave no quarter. The pins came out of the regulators and it was simply electrifying to cross Runcorn bridge on the footplate of No. 5593 as she roared her head off!
Thousands more people came to these ‘foreign’ open days and the publicity was immense. BR made some money and relationships deepened. Everything had run reliably and safely; staff and visitors had a whale of a time. Meanwhile, Terry Miller was beginning to warm up the genie in the bottle.
NATIONAL SANCTUARY
Pat then went a step further. He formed an educational charitable trust to create a well equipped locomotive workshop for the future (the Tyseley Locomotive Works we know today).
Friends from Midlands industry were inveigled to develop it and Chief Engineer Jim Kent led the charge in assembling it and collecting as many drawings, patterns, parts and machinery as he could lay his hands on. As there was space in the shed, Pat offered it to John Scholes, the first curator of the BR national railway collection as moves were then being made to consider a National Railway Museum away from the former bus depot at Clapham. We were entrusted with four locomotives and two carriages: ‘King Arthur’ No. 30777 Sir Lamiel, ‘Schools’ No. 30925 Cheltenham, LSWR ‘T9’ No. 120, L&Y 2-4-2T No. 1008 and two replica Liverpool & Manchester coaches. Of course, as these were publicly owned exhibits, it was a fairly easy persuasion case for them to star at further open days.
There would be more to see, and BR’s museum collection could be on occasional view. Tyseley open days grew to become biannual. Locomotives from nearby centres at Ashchurch and the SVR were dragged to Tyseley by diesel, and even Princess Elizabeth, Blue Peter, Sir Nigel Gresley and Green Arrow were allowed to run on the goods line passenger shuttle with the home fleet.
Then something happened. Peter Prior, managing director of Bulmers, appeared on the scene with an audacious plan to run King George V. It is a fascinating fact of life that if you’re brave enough to put your foot forward with an interesting and plausible
idea, others will seek you out and join in. I found this happened when I was involved with the Welsh Highland Railway and it is happening again with the Vintage Train Community Benefit Society. If you sit down with such people and fire their imaginations with a vision – but also underpin it with logic and highlight good previous performance – relationships can be built and nurtured. Nothing happens without trust built on competence and good relationships. Peter came to see us. He took both our families out for Sunday lunch at the Plough & Harrow Hotel on Hagley Road in Birmingham, then the top business restaurant in town.
I remember the lunch well. Perfectly cooked roast beef carved by the chef from a silver plate with one of those silver cloches; the meal for eight cost £44 4/6d – an absolute fortune at the time. Peter asked lots of questions about what we were doing at Tyseley, why and how. While he had no previous experience in the railway preservation field, that turned out to our mutual advantage. He had the same passion for getting BR to change its mind. Sometimes it is better for two like-minded people to join in a crusade. Peter and Pat became joined at the hip.
GIN PALACe
They hatched a plan, supported by Terry Miller, to try out main line excursions with an express steam locomotive – King George V
– which Prior had restored to working order. He also arranged for Bulmers to acquire some Pullman coaches. The plot was logical, realistic and very persuasive. No. 6000 would initially haul the Pullman train from Hereford to Tyseley in fairly short stages. BR would, of course, be paid for the excursion on its standard terms. Moreover, BR would also benefit from another (by now popular) Tyseley open day with King George V leading on the shuttle train. 18,000 people attended on one day, paying 7/6d each. The Tyseley collection was on show. Everyone loved it. Chat in the ‘gin palace’ GWR engineer’s saloon, always the party vehicle for ‘persuasion’, was all about running to Didcot or Stratford, relatively short trips out and home from recognised depots, safe, low-risk and on a profit share basis. Three more trains ran without a hitch.
Prior was convinced. Miller began the stealth tactics with the BR board chairman and typewriters began to heat up. In 1972, BR relented and agreed a one-year trial involving a set number of steam locomotives running from a few approved depots with excursion trains, including steam on only one leg of the journey, so widening the catchment – wise and commercially sound. Naturally, Clun Castle and King George V ran the first two trains, but the same model was repeated countrywide from Carnforth with ‘Black Fives’, Sir Nigel Gresley and Clan Line. All went well and the format which was successfully moulded by David Ward for BR, and Bernard Staite for the Steam Locomotive Operators’ Association, developed. The future was safe… for now.
The Tyseley open days had proved the point. The development of the depot as a heritage locomotive works, to preserve the equipment and skills, was a sensible and inspired move. BR approved of the concept as a blueprint for steam excursions, along with Carnforth, Didcot and Hereford in particular. The city of Birmingham which, at the time, had a very active newspaper, had shown great solidarity and took on a public relations role. Above all, the men who collaborated to make it happen worked well together to tease out the art of realising the dream, step by step. They used the open days as a public arena, and inspired many people who would otherwise never have gone on the journey without a clear demonstration of the realism, and commercial awareness. So trust was created and the journey to the future had begun. That is why Vintage Trains’ in-house magazine is still called Steam in Trust.
Over the years, we have been privileged to showcase the very best of preserved steam locomotives at our open days with many visitors. Ranging from humble industrial tank engines, main line shunters, suburban and mixed traffic locomotives such as a Stroudley ‘Terrier’ and a Taff Vale 0-6-2T to very many express steam locomotives, including
Sir Nigel Gresley, Bittern, Green Arrow, Blue Peter, Lode Star, Nunney Castle, Duchess of Sutherland and the most famous steam locomotive in the world, Flying Scotsman.
For me, perhaps the very best visitor ever has been Lion, then the oldest working steam locomotive in the world, built
if you’re brave enough to put your foot forward with an interesting and plausible idea, others will seek you out and join in
in 1838 for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. This amazing locomotive came to Tyseley for ten days in 1980 and attracted over 10,000 visitors to ride behind her in a re-creation of the ‘Old Time Train’ using the replica blue open carriages from the same railway. Lion also came to us because of a relationship built on trust.
I had been at Liverpool University and Lion was housed in the city museum. I got to know Adrian Jarvis, the curator, and together we hatched a plan for Lion to come to Birmingham as well as play a starring role at ‘Rocket 150’ at Bold Colliery. Of course, the reputation the Black Country had for outstanding pubs had nothing whatsoever to do with the visit!
BEHIND THE SCENES
Tyseley open days have continued to play an important role in the development of what is now Vintage Trains Charitable Trust. They have continued to provide a focus in dark days when we were not able to operate on the main line for various reasons, such as no money to overhaul locomotives or no operator willing to run our trains.
The public love seeing them and even today, with very many other attractions competing for public attention, independent audience research is overwhelmingly telling us that our visitors love coming to a working depot, which is not a museum, so they can get up close and personal with our express steam locomotives and small tank engines. They really like the essence of an operational depot and the chance to go behind the scenes. For the moment we have focused on two weekends a year to concentrate on the activity to make sure there are enough things to see, showcase our newest restorations and top-and-tail the summer ‘Shakespeare Express’ season.
We are gradually building up our operational fleet and capabilities. We have formulated a masterplan of development for the depot to facilitate three things: sustainability for Tyseley Locomotive Works to ensure skills retention and engineering facilities to repair and maintain steam locomotives, and sustainability for Vintage Trains Limited to operate express steam trains and also venture into community railways. The third element involves recreating what we can of Tyseley depot to maintain the essence of a working locomotive shed for the public’s enjoyment. We still have the original 1908 coaling stage and the footprint of the passenger roundhouse. One day, the phoenix will rise…
The time has come to celebrate the 50th anniversary of these open days which sowed so many seeds to enable main line steam to return from the dead. So, on the 50th anniversary of the 1968 open day, on September 29/30, we are holding a celebratory event featuring the entire host team and some surprise visitors.
Not only will we mark 50 years of Tyseley open days but we will celebrate our new ability to run express steam trains ourselves on the main line; soon we will be able to go further than just the goods loop by operating ourselves. Did we think in 1968 that 50 years hence we would be able to run our own trains? Of course not. It was then beyond our wildest dreams.
But now, it is almost a reality – and there will be many more obstacles to overcome.
Look out for famous named trains. Consider the DfT promotion of Community Railways. Start to believe in regular express steam trains.
●● For details of how to join Vintage Trains’ Community Benefit Society, visit www.vintagetrains.co.uk