SADDLE TANK MARGARET GETS SPRUCED UP AT SCOLTON MANOR
Volunteers at Scolton Manor Museum are cosmetically restoring North Pembrokeshire & Fishguard Railway 0-6-0ST Margaret.
The Scolton Steam Team, a community volunteer group set up to work on the industrial collections at the Pembrokeshire museum, have been working on the 1878-built Fox, Walker locomotive since September.
Displayed in the open at Scolton Manor for 46 years, the locomotive’s condition had deteriorated, but under the supervision of consultant Peter Meehan of the Historic Metalwork Conservation Company, the volunteers have been cleaning off corrosion and applying primer in preparation for a repaint into GWR livery.
The aim is to complete work on the locomotive by the end of March, in time for an April opening of the surrounding ‘Railway Garden’, which includes the restoration of the former Sarnau signal box and the construction of a small platform.
Of the £100,000 budget for the initial phase of the project, 90% was funded by grants from the Welsh Government and the Pilgrim Trust, with the condition from the latter that covered accommodation is provided for the locomotive within two years. The timber canopy on the platform will have attachments to fit an awning around the engine in winter.
Responding to concerns raised about the engine’s welfare (SR501 Mailbag), Scolton Manor Collections Officer Catriona Hilditch said: “Margaret has been at Scolton since 1974. She is greatly loved by local people and if we had taken the decision to transfer her to another site (either in the county or outside) she would have been much missed. Since 1974, Margaret has been the only locomotive on public display in Pembrokeshire and for that reason (as well as her years of working in Pembrokeshire) she is considered an intrinsic part of Pembrokeshire history and a valuable asset to Scolton Manor.”
One of just three Fox, Walker & Company engines in preservation, Margaret was constructed by the Bristol firm for the Narberth Road & Maenclochog Railway, which became the North Pembrokeshire & Fishguard Railway.
Absorbed into GWR stock, the engine was rebuilt at Swindon in 1904 with a GWR boiler, chimney, dome and brass safety valve bonnet, but retained the original Fox, Walker cab.
It was sold in 1910 to the Gwendraeth Valley Railway as its No. 2 Kidwelly, only to be absorbed into the GWR a second time in 1923, and sold on to the Kidwelly Tinplate Works. Latterly used as a stationary boiler, it last steamed in 1941 when the works closed.
Sold to Pembrokeshire Museums and moved to Scolton in 1974, it was first restored by volunteers in the 1970s, and again by local schoolchildren in the 1980s.