Southwold Railway ShaRp, StewaRt 2‑4‑0t No. 3
Blyth
Group: Southwold Railway Trust
Project formed: 2009
Project cost: £300,000
Raised to date: Approx. £200,000
Estimated completion date: 2020 (see text) Location: North Bay Railway Engineering Services, Darlington
It was 90 years ago this spring that the Southwold Railway closed, but nine decades after the quirky 3ft gauge line’s demise, a significant tribute is well under construction. However, perhaps uniquely among other narrow gauge new-build projects, this one is being built before it even has a railway on which to run.
SR No. 3 Blyth was one of a trio of Sharp, Stewart 2-4-0Ts built by the Manchester firm for the line’s opening in September 1879, in addition to Nos. 1 Southwold and 2 Halesworth. Southwold was returned to Sharp, Stewart in 1883, re-gauged, and sold in 1888 to the Santa Maria Railway, Colombia, where it worked on a banana plantation until 1932. It was replaced by a new 2-4-2T of the same name and number – ostensibly similar to the 2-4-0Ts, albeit with a trailing axle, a rear bunker and a more enclosed cab
– in 1893, and the trio were later joined by a Manning Wardle 0-6-2T, No. 4 Wenhaston, in July 1914. All four worked until 1928 when No. 1 was withdrawn from service. The rest carried on until the line’s closure in April 1929, and No. 1 was scrapped the following month. Halesworth, Blyth and Wenhaston survived until 1941, when they too were cut up.
Fast forward to 2009, when the Southwold Railway Trust – the organisation attempting to resurrect the Halesworth-Southwold line – launched its 2-4-0 Club with the aim of recreating Blyth, one of only two original locomotives to remain in service throughout the line’s 50-year history. The frames, frame stretchers, buffer beam and pony wheels were made in 2010, but otherwise, progress in the first decade was fairly limited. The project stepped up a gear in January 2019, when it signed a contract with North Bay Railway Engineering Services in Darlington to build Blyth in its entirety – despite the fact that the railway is yet to grow beyond its embryonic Southwold Steamworks site (only a few hundred yards away from the site of the original Southwold terminus).
Since then, however, progress has been rapid. The boiler has been built and hydraulically tested, new frames have been erected (SR494) and stretchers fitted. The wheels and cylinders are on order and are expected to be delivered in September/October, with the plan to have a rolling chassis by the end of the autumn, and capable of running on compressed air by Easter 2020.
SRT chairman John Bennett estimates the final cost will be approximately £300,000. “We already have two thirds of that, so we are looking to raise a further £100,000 through crowd-funding and other methods. If we are able to keep it funded it could be finished by mid 2020,” he says.
“We have built a mock-up of Blyth’s front end in the engine shed, which includes the chimney and smokebox door we made before our involvement with NBRES, but hope they will be incorporated into the locomotive.”
Once finished, Blyth will initially run on 230ft of track that the trust aims to lay by the end of the year at its Steamworks site, with the intention of running Blyth from Easter 2021, depending on income.
Given that it does not yet have a railway to run on, and that the prospects of the Southwold Railway being substantially revived currently appear slim owing to intense local opposition, the Blyth project might seem foolhardy to some. However, even if it will never run beyond the relatively short length of track at Steamworks, Blyth’s very existence and operation will be a fantastic homage to one of England’s most unusual and characterful railways.
For more information and to donate, visit www.southwoldrailway.co.uk/trustprojects/2-4-0t-no-3-blyth