GER ‘Claud Hamilton’/lnER ‘d16/2’ 4‑4‑0 no. 8783 Phoenix
Group: Claud Hamilton Locomotive Group
Project launched: 2011 Project cost: £1.5 million (approx.)
Raised to date: £2,500 Estimated completion date: 10-20 years Number of supporters: Declined to say Location: Whitwell & Reepham Station, Norfolk To run: Preserved railways and main line Mission statement: “We aim to build and operate the Great Eastern Railway’s legendary 4-4-0 ‘D16/2’ ‘Claud Hamilton’ steam locomotive No. 8783, to be named Phoenix.” There is no denying that ‘Claud Hamilton’ No. 8783 Phoenix would be an attractive and striking locomotive if it were completed, with the Claud Hamilton Locomotive Group’s plans to present it with Belpaire firebox, valancing over the splashers and copper-capped chimney.
The group asserts on its website that: “The class is the GER’s most famous locomotive design and is a big missing link in Eastern Region preservation, showing how a pre-Grouping design influenced the design of other later locomotives, such as the ‘B12s’ and other express passenger engines for the Great Eastern and London & North Eastern railways.”
However, physical progress has been slow since the project was launched in 2011.
Apart from acquiring a bufferbeam plate in 2016, a wooden nameplate and a few other sundry items, no other components have been manufactured; work instead has focused on creating the Computer Aided Design drawings.
One cannot fault the enthusiasm of the team behind Phoenix, nor their intention to inspire their peers’ interest in railways, locomotives and engineering. Furthermore, the group all either work or volunteer on preserved railways, and having an average age on the right side of 30, the team has time in its favour.
It will need it though. Having so far only raised around £2,500, based on the current rate of income, it will take nearly 4,200 years to raise the estimated £1.5 million needed, and spokesman Dan Knights admits: “This could increase depending on inflation and materials.
“We are committed to completing the ‘Claud’, but at present a completion date is unknown, as this will depend on the funding, sourcing and building. The main focus for the group at this time is the bogie; getting a complete rolling assembly, which can be used to raise money.”
However, the project is caught in a Catch-22 situation. It feels it needs to build major components like the bogie in order to attract support and fund-raising, but it cannot build them because it currently has limited funds, and it cannot raise those funds without physical evidence of the project’s progress.
And, if it didn’t capture potential supporters’ imaginations when it was launched, why should it do so now or at a later date? If there was sufficient appetite to see a ‘D16’ resurrected, why didn’t those interested support it in 2011?
It isn’t impossible for a project to regain lost momentum but, says ‘P2’ Project Director Mark Allatt: “It is hard work, a bit like turning around a supertanker. It is better to get it right at the start.”
Indeed, other projects have been slow to start with, but given how much the scheme needs to ramp up its income, and the apparent lack of interest shown in the project so far, is Phoenix a viable new-build locomotive?