THAT’S ‘HALL’… 4965 STOPPED FOR OVERHAUL

It’s been an all-but constant presence over the last two decades – not even needing so much as a paint job last time it was overhauled. But after another ten years, Rood Ashton Hall has been ‘stopped’ again.

Visitors to Tyseley’s open weekend on June 22/23 saw No. 4965 in steam, but it was then pulled some weeks before ‘time’ – to avoid doing some boiler work judged not worthwhile for the short period left.

With that, the only main liner to presently bear the words ‘Great Western’ bows out. With Earl of Mount Edgcumbe also out for ‘heavy general’ and none of Tyseley’s three panniers currently ticketed for Network Rail, it also leaves Clun Castle as the only home-grown steam available for Vintage Trains trips.

At the last overhaul, finished in 2009, the ‘Hall’s’ absence was so brief you’d hardly have noticed. Having run until November 2008 it came back the following October in precisely the same 1920s colours applied on completion of its Barry restoration 11 years before. This time though, it seems the 4-6-0’s absence may be for longer.

“We don’t yet know when it will start or, indeed, how much it will cost and what might be found until it’s stripped,” reports spokesman Denis Chick.

He says Tyseley “is pretty confident that it can be fast-tracked once started” given the Collett engine’s overall good condition, but adds: “We don’t want to set any expectations with a speculative forecast.”

Indeed, with a “huge amount going on in the workshop” (third-party projects include Duke of Gloucester’s overhaul, among other work) Tyseley’s man says it will be “later in the year before we will know where we are”. That, he says, is the case not only for No. 4965 but also the 0-6-0PTs, No. 5043, “and even Defiant”.

Plus, he points out, an overhaul is also on the slate for ‘47’ No. 47773.

So, it could be a little while. In the meantime, let’s leave the postscript with erstwhile Tyseley chief engineer Bob Meanley, the man in charge when the 1929-built Swindon 4-6-0 was restored.

“Over 20 years, it’s been a gem of a thing,” says Bob. “It’s never broken down.”

“People used to say Western engines were unreliable. Well, here’s one that wasn’t. That’s why they built 330 of them.”

Who knows, maybe next time ‘old reliable’ will even have a new coat of paint.