‘barry ten’ boiler will steam again – on jeremy hosking’s ‘9f’
The boiler of Barry ‘9F’ No. 92245 is to make steam again after over 50 years – to power classmate No. 92212.
One of the former ‘Barry Ten’ collection, No. 92245’s frames, wheels and cab remain at the Barry Tourist Railway – but its boiler is at Crewe, having been acquired by Steve Latham in 2013 to save it from being sectioned for a Barry scrapyard-themed display (SR411/418).
Subsequently sold to Jeremy Hosking’s Locomotive Services Ltd, it is now being overhauled in readiness for fitting to No. 92212 when that locomotive comes into the works at Crewe Diesel Depot in 2019. Currently on hire to the Mid-Hants Railway, No. 92212’s boiler certificate expires in June.
Peter Greenwood of LSL said: “We are already working on the spare ‘9F’ boiler so it should be a quick turnaround.”
The Riddles 2-10-0 is not the only engine in Mr Hosking’s fleet to benefit from a spare boiler – he also owns the ‘A4’ boiler formerly fitted to Flying Scotsman and now awaiting overhaul to replace that on No. 4464 Bittern.
Turned out from Crewe in November 1958, No. 92245 ran for little more than six years before it was withdrawn at Southall (81C) in December 1964, including a spell on the Somerset & Dorset in the summer of 1962.
It was the last ‘9F’ to leave Dai Woodham’s scrapyard, in February 1988, to become part of the ‘Barry Ten’, but remained unrestored. It is one of just three of the ten still at the BTR, the others being GWR ‘4575’ 2-6-2T No. 5539 and ‘56XX’ 0-6-2T No. 6686, which are under restoration in the line’s ‘Barry New Works’ (see Roster, pages 28-30).
John Buxton, managing director of the Barry Tourist Railway, said that the bottom half of No. 92245 will not be scrapped, but is still destined to become an educational exhibit in the line’s Plymouth Road museum: “We’re hoping to get some components back from the boiler that we can use – like the smokebox – and use electronics to simulate the gas axes and give people an idea of how locomotives used to be cut up.”