Why a GWR ‘Dukedog’ became a prized part of the Bluebell fleet
How a hybrid GWR interloper became one of the preservation stalwarts of Sussex.
When the West Somerset Railway converted ex-Barry ‘Large Prairie’ No. 5193 into a lightweight 2-6-0 tender engine in the early years of the 21st century, purists were critical; some viewed it as butchery of a historic artefact rather than true railway preservation, and others labelled it – whether disparagingly or lightheartedly – as a ‘Mongrel’ rather than a ‘Mogul’.
Yet the one thing they couldn’t say was that it lacked historical precedent. In creating this small-boilered version of the Churchward ‘43XX’ design, which had indeed been proposed by Collett in the 1930s but never built, the WSR was merely continuing a long-established Great Western Railway tradition of rebuilding locomotives to suit the circumstances of the time, and making the best, most economic use of the available material.
A genuine, original example of that Swindon tradition has existed in preservation since before No. 5193 was even withdrawn from BR service, let alone rescued from Dai Woodham’s scrapyard or returned to steam. An engine that is, if anything, even more worthy of the ‘Mongrel’ moniker – quite literally, because it’s half-‘Bulldog’.
But it goes by a nickname that suggests a far more aristocratic pedigree: ‘Dukedog’.
FAMILY TREE
Much like its famous preserved counterpart, City of Truro, the ‘Dukedog’ was already an anachronism when it was built – but was nonetheless a sensible move by Swindon in the context of the time. Like the ‘Cities’ – designed by Churchward as a well-proven stopgap, to shoulder the burden of GWR express passenger operation while he thoroughly tested his revolutionary new 4-6-0s
– the ‘Dukedogs’, and their direct progenitors, were tried-and-tested, if somewhat outdated, machines to meet the requirements of a specific task.
Like the 1903-built City of Truro, the ‘Dukedog’ – despite its official construction date of 1938 – harks back to the 19th century in every way; not least its double frames, a relic of the broad gauge era. Not limited to the GWR, this method of construction was effectively a safety feature dating back to the 1850s, intended to provide extra bearing support and guard against crank axle failures, but died out as engineering and track conditions improved.
The ‘Dukedog’ can trace its ancestry back to the period of the GWR’s great change from broad to standard gauge; as the last sections of 7ft ¼ inch gauge line were converted to 4ft 8½ inches in Devon and Cornwall, the need arose for more powerful engines to replace the motley collection of broad gauge tank engines left in the West Country. The GWR’s great engineer William Dean, then in the twilight of his career, designed the sure-footed, double-framed ‘Dukes’ with their 5ft 7½in driving wheels to cope with these steeply graded routes.
Dean’s successor, Churchward, left his stamp on the class when he rebuilt one with his new boiler design, the prototype for what became the ‘Bulldog’. Both classes had long lives, with the last examples of each surviving until 1951 – but some would effectively survive for more than a decade more in a somewhat different form…
TWO INTO ONE
Inevitably ousted from the West Country by more modern 4-6-0s and ‘Moguls’, the ‘Dukes’ had found
a niche on some of the GWR’s lightly laid lines, such as the winding Cambrian route from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli. But they couldn’t last forever and, by 1929, their frames were proving a headache, needing regular patching to repair cracks.
In December that year, the GWR withdrew ‘Bulldog’ No. 3365 Charles Grey Mott, and the following month, it found itself in Swindon Works alongside ‘Duke’ No. 3265 Tre Pol and Pen. The ‘Duke’ had been condemned because of the poor condition of its frames, but those of the ‘Bulldog’ were still serviceable, so why not make one good engine out of the two?
The GWR did just that, transferring the boiler, cab and motion of the ‘Duke’ onto the frames of the ‘Bulldog’ – and what was quickly dubbed the ‘Dukedog’ was born. Twenty-nine more ‘3200s’ were constructed in similar fashion between 1936 and 1939, and the remaining 11 ‘Dukes’ would also have been so treated had it not been for the outbreak of the Second World War.
The parentage of the future Bluebell example (originally built as No. 3217 in 1938, but renumbered 9017 in 1946) is even more mixed. Officially, it was a replacement of ‘Duke’ No. 3258 The Lizard, using the frames of ‘Bulldog’ No. 3425 – but the letter written by its later saviour, Tom Gomm, to those who had donated to the preservation fund, stated: “The Western Region were kind enough to carry out a search of their records, and… in fact, the boiler and almost certainly the cab, came from ‘Duke’ No. 3253, formerly named Pendennis Castle.” However, subsequent research suggests that in fact, the the boiler and cab came from ‘Duke’ No. 3282
Chepstow Castle.
The ‘Dukedog’ can trace its ancestry back to the period of the GWR’s great change from broad to standard gauge
RARE BREED
Retaining the Yellow route availability of the ‘Dukes’, the new hybrids continued to provide ideal motive power for the Cambrian section, and other such GWR byways, long into the nationalised era – and, fortunately, just into what we now know as the standard gauge preservation era.
In its earliest days, the Bluebell Railway drew up a wish list of exotic and vintage locomotives, then still in service, that it would have liked to acquire. There were some engines on it that you would expect of such a Southern-oriented line – such as a Beattie 2-4-0 well tank, or LBSCR ‘E1’ 0-6-0T – but some others that you might not anticipate, such as a Great Eastern ‘J15’ 0-6-0, a Metropolitan Railway 0-4-4T... and a ‘Dukedog’.
That it did manage to acquire one of the GWR 4-4-0s was thanks to the efforts of two preservation pioneers – Tom Gomm and Peter Summers – in what was only the second public appeal for funds to preserve a standard gauge steam locomotive, following that for LNWR ‘Coal Tank’ No. 1054.
Tom Gomm – whose other claim to fame was being the proprietor of railway badge manufacturer R.E.V. Gomm Ltd – died in 1998, but related the story of the ‘Dukedog’s’ preservation in a booklet produced to mark the engine’s return to steam after overhaul in 1982.
With only two examples still in service in 1960 – Nos. 9014 and 9017 – he started the ball rolling that summer with a letter to The Railway Magazine, then travelled on the annual Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society special train that September, handing out leaflets. At the head of the train, specially requested for the occasion, was No. 9017 (piloting ‘Mogul’ No. 7330), and, Tom remembered: “The reaction of a BR inspector was to remark: ‘There’s a fellow on this train trying to buy the engine on the front so we’d better cut it up quick before he does any good.’
“By a stroke of good fortune, however, one of the leaflets reached the hands of Mr Peter Summers, who also had a long-standing interest in this type of locomotive and there is little doubt that his valuable assistance ensured the success of the project.
“He had family and business connections with the Western Region and was able immediately to supply support and guidance. With the information Peter provided, I was able to contact the responsible persons at Swindon with a request for a purchase price for 9017 which was the better of the remaining pair and, in addition, was in original appearance not having acquired the large top feed of its companion.”
Far from being in a hurry to cut it up, though, the Western Region replied that neither No. 9017 nor
No. 9014 were for sale, as they were to be retained for special trains – and instead, offered Messrs Gomm and Summers a withdrawn example from the scrap dump at Swindon. Fortunately, in October 1960, the decision was made to withdraw the two working survivors after all (No. 9017’s last working having been the 11.05am Dovey
Junction-Pwllheli on September 30) and the intrepid duo were quoted a price of £1,549 “provided that on purchase it was removed from BR property forthwith.”
RESCUE DOG
In the event, No. 9017 would spend a further 16 months on BR property – for which due credit must be given to Oliver Veltom, the BR district superintendent at Oswestry, who saw to it that the ‘Dukedog’ was safely stored in Oswestry Works while funds to purchase it were raised.
As local historian Chris Magner reminds us, this was not his only form in railway preservation: “He saved the Vale of Rheidol Railway from closure in the 1950s and renovated it to such an extent his men called it ‘Veltom’s Own Railway’. His greatest achievement was saving the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway by keeping their two locomotives in Oswestry Works from 1956 to 1962 so the line could reopen in 1963. He cared for his men; when the Ruabon to Barmouth line closed in 1965, he wrote to all the major employers in the area asking them to employ redundant railwaymen.”
Although “contributions continued to roll in during 1961, even from subscribers as far away as East Africa and Italy”, Tom and Peter had to top up the fund to ensure that the purchase price could be met in February 1962, while Peter also covered the cost of transporting the engine to its new home.
A classic GWR country railway would have seemed the ideal home, but in 1962, such a thing simply didn’t exist in preservation. There was only one place to take it – the former LBSCR ‘Bluebell Line’, which had included the engine on its initial shopping list. As well as being the first tender engine to arrive at the Bluebell, it would also be the first non-Southern locomotive on the line (though quickly followed just a month later by North London Railway 0-6-0T No. 2650 – see pages 80-85).
Despite being such a quintessentially GWR design, ‘Dukedogs’ do have one, albeit very minor, historical connection with the Southern Region – for two examples, Nos. 9023 and 9011, were chosen for a Railway Correspondence & Travel Society railtour to Swindon on April 25 1954, departing from London Victoria.
However, No. 9017 was about to embark much deeper into Southern territory. It left Oswestry under its own steam on February 14 1962, travelling light via Wolverhampton, Birmingham and High Wycombe to London, where it spent the night at Old Oak Common shed – visited that evening by some of those who had subscribed to the preservation appeal.
Next morning, it set off via Kensington Olympia and Clapham Junction, but despite the previous visit of Nos. 9023 and 9011 on the RCTS tour, the Southern Region authorities were worried that its large outside cranks and coupling rods would be out of gauge. Certainly, the Special Traffic Notice for the move laid down several severe speed restrictions, and barred it from entering the platforms at Brighton altogether.
It had to go past the Bluebell, and further south to Brighton, in order to turn – because the Bluebell wanted
it facing up the 1-in-75 gradient of Freshfield Bank, as is usual practice on all railways to help ensure the firebox crown is kept covered by water. From the former hub of the LBSCR, the new GWR interloper returned via Haywards Heath and the Ardingly branch to Horsted Keynes, where the signal box register records that it arrived on time at 3.48pm.
TENDER SWAP: 1
One of its first duties was an unusual one – a series of evacuation trains.
These were part of the Civil Defence ‘Exercise Bluebell’ on April 8 1962, moving 4,000 ‘evacuees’ in five trains during a three-hour period. The ‘Dukedog’ shared the load with Adams ‘Radial’ No. 488, but had to remain at the rear of the train because – although Bluebell trains were now permitted into Horsted Keynes station – the Southern Region were still concerned at the clearances of its rods. Only the following year, when the Ardingly branch closed to passengers and the preserved line took over Horsted Keynes, did this problem disappear.
The ‘Dukedog’ had a bigger problem than this to contend with, though. Although it had entered preservation with a generous supply of Welsh coal in its tender, the state of the tender itself – No. 1805 – was quickly causing concern. Built in July 1911 and thought to have first been attached to ‘Mogul’ No. 4305, it was described by an early Bluebell volunteer, the late Mike South, as “incredibly rust-wasted” meaning that “it was a race to get to the other end of the line before all the water poured out”.
BR agreed to sell the railway a replacement tender, along with a set of firebars, the latter items in No. 9017 being equally life-expired. The new tender was No. 2331, built in September 1921 and first coupled to ‘Mogul’ No. 6389, though for unknown reasons, it carries the number 1840 today.
Its arrival during 1963 released the previous tender to provide a water supply at West Hoathly for North London Railway 0-6-0T No. 2650 and LBSCR ‘E4’ 0-6-2T Birch Grove while they were engaged in lifting the Horsted Keynes to East Grinstead and Ardingly lines the following year (see pages 84-89). At an unconfirmed date, this tender was scrapped, probably at West Hoathly.
During 1964 and 1965, the ‘Dukedog’ also received a cosmetic restoration, returning it to original GWR guise with the 1930s ‘shirtbutton’ emblem, its first number of 3217… and the name that had been proposed for it, Earl of Berkeley.
This is perhaps the best-known part of the ‘Dukedog’ story. Although the first two retained their ‘Duke’ names of Tre Pol and Pen and St Michael, the GWR quickly decided to name the class after earls… and then decided just as quickly to transfer the names to ‘Castle’ 4-6-0s, after some of those earls took umbrage at seeing their titles on such outdated-looking machines.
Several of the ‘Dukedogs’ never received their intended names as a result, one of them being No. 3217 – the plates instead ending up on ‘Castle’ No. 5060. With that engine’s withdrawal in April 1963, they became available – but had already been reserved by a Mr Higson of Northwood and Mr Strange of Sunderland. Thankfully, wrote Tom, they “agreed most generously when approached to cancel their claims to the plates.”
Similarly, the engine’s original 3217 numberplates had been transferred to a newly built Collett ‘2251’
The Southern Region authorities were worried that its large outside cranks and coupling rods would be out of gauge
0-6-0 in 1946, the ‘Dukedogs’ being renumbered in the 90XX series for this reason. When the ‘2251’ was in turn withdrawn from Leamington Spa in November 1964, the plates were acquired to return to the ‘Dukedog’. The 9017 plates it carries today are replicas, while the originals are in the railway’s museum collection.
TENDER SWAP: 2
The ‘recreated’ No. 3217 went into regular Bluebell service – sometimes with its name, sometimes without, as Bluebell engineer Mr Cleaver had designed the brackets so they could be easily removed for safekeeping – but a number of underlying health issues continued to plague the engine through those early years.
During repairs in 1967, the superheater elements were found to be rotted, this being solved by the simple expedient of removing them altogether and making the engine saturated. A troublesome exhaust injector was replaced with one from an LSWR ‘O2’ 0-4-4T, and, recorded then shedmaster Bill Brophy: “The cylinder lubrication existed as an oily mess in one corner of the cab and after a great deal of thought and ingenuity on the part of John Ley, the chief mechanical engineer, it was replaced by a mechanical lubricator, which for the purist is hardly visible.”
The replacement tender, too, was (in Bluebell archivist Roger Price’s words) “not much better” than the previous one, and in 1971, history repeated itself for the ‘Dukedog’. Sort of.
At the start of that season, No. 3217 was laid up because the tender tank and dragbox were badly corroded, and the brake gear also needed attention. A search party was sent to Barry scrapyard to assess the GWR tenders there, writes Bill Brophy, but “found nothing better than our own.”
At the same time, South Eastern & Chatham Railway ‘C’ 0-6-0 No. 592 was also out of action, the railway’s engineering staff having lifted it off its wheels to attend to a hot axlebox, only to find severe damage to the axle journal. So, with the ‘Dukedog’ itself, and the ‘C’s’ tender, both still serviceable, why not make one good engine out of the two?
The Bluebell did just that, suitably adapting the Wainwright engine’s tender, and what was quickly dubbed the ‘Sea Dog’ was born. It ran like this until December 1973, when it was withdrawn for overhaul, not to steam again until 1982 – though it did get one brief moment in the limelight in 1977. In a foreshadowing of its most recent exploits, and by now reunited with its own tender, it was repainted BR black and posed on Freshfield Bank with a re-creation of a ‘Cambrian goods train’, complete with a fire in its smokebox for clag effects.
HAPPY HOMECOMINGS
The highlight of the 1980s for the ‘Dukedog’ was a return to GWR territory, and a particularly appropriate part at that. Between 1984 and 1989, it visited Didcot Railway Centre, undergoing firebox repairs, receiving new driving wheel tyres and taking part in the ‘GWR 150’ celebrations of 1985. The preserved shed was once home to a few of No. 3217’s classmates, the nearby Didcot, Newbury & Southampton route having been another regular ‘Dukedog’ stamping ground.
But its real ‘homecoming’ would take place after its next overhaul, which took over four years and was completed in late 2003 at a cost of over £100,000.
As well as new front and rear sections to the inner frames, and boiler repairs including a new smokebox tubeplate, the work included the reversal of two of the late 1960s modifications, by refitting the superheaters and hydrostatic displacement lubrication system. It was turned out with its later number of 9017, carrying postwar GWR livery for the first time in preservation.
So, more ‘original’ and authentic than it had been for decades, the ‘Dukedog’ was ready for some truly authentic re-creations of the class’ history.
There was the Severn Valley Railway’s Cambrianthemed Autumn Steam Gala of October 2008, appropriately placing it at the head of GWR-liveried passenger and freight stock on a route that could pass for many one-time ‘Dukedog’ haunts. There was the visit to the South Devon Railway in the spring of 2011, with the engine now carrying BR black, and thus making
another perfect match with that line’s ‘blood and custard’ Collett and Hawksworth carriages. But stirring the emotions most of all was its return to Wales.
When No. 9017 bade farewell to the principality and headed south to the Bluebell in the 1960s, nobody could have predicted that the growth of railway preservation would one day allow it to return, or that almost five decades later, one of these characterful machines, smartly attired in BR black, could once again be seen heading westwards out of Llangollen on the RuabonBarmouth line that they once plied.
Not so ‘authentic’, but a historic milestone nonetheless, was the Bluebell’s ‘Giants of Steam’ in October 2006 – for which the star guest was City of Truro, providing the first opportunity to double-head the only two surviving GWR ‘double-framers’ on a preserved line (they had met once before, at Didcot during ‘GWR 150’). It was also
By the time the ‘Dukedog’ had been outshopped in its present form, ‘Truro’ had been stuffed and mounted for seven years