BRITAIN’S PRESERVED STEAM
THE STATS AND FACTS Steam Railway digs into the numbers and draws some conclusions about Britain’s preserved steam locomotive fleet.
Key statistics from our new guide
Hopefully by now you’ll have picked up a copy of the third edition of our Britain’s Preserved Locomotives publication. In it, we have listed and illustrated every pre-Grouping, ‘Big Four’, BR and WD standard, narrow and broad gauge locomotive preserved in Britain and overseas, as well as those standard and narrow gauge engines that worked for Britain’s multitude of independent passenger-carrying railway companies. And, in response to calls for their inclusion ever since we published the first edition of BPL back in 2018, we have also listed all 575 of Britain’s standard gauge industrial steam locomotives for the first time. Not only is it the ideal companion for the enthusiast, it also provides a concise overview of Britain’s national locomotive fleet, allowing us to take stock of what all our locomotives are up to, where they are, and what shape they are in at a glance. Think of it then as a national locomotive audit – a yearly update on Britain’s engines, their whereabouts and statuses that allows us to track changes in those currently operational, under overhaul, on static display and so on – as well as what liveries they are wearing!
But what does this tell us?
DOING THE NUMBERS
To save you the trouble, we’ve crunched the numbers to analyse Britain’s preserved locomotives. Of the 598 pre-Grouping, ‘Big Four’, BR, WD and independent railway company locomotives listed, just under 30% are currently operational/‘in ticket’. Interestingly, that figure also roughly
corresponds with the proportion of operational locomotives from each of the ‘Big Four’, BR and independent companies, albeit with slight variations in each group. The group with the highest proportion of operational locomotives is BR, with 40% currently in ticket, but the GWR has by far the highest number of working engines, with 46.
At the other end of the scale, 23% of those 598 locomotives are on static display. Of the individual groups, the LMS (and its constituents) has the highest number of engines on static display – 37, or 31% – but the LNER, because there are far fewer of those engines saved from Barry to run again, has the highest proportion of surviving locomotives on static display: 46%.
Here’s another interesting LNER statistic. Of all the ‘Big Four’/BR categories, the LNER has the fewest engines awaiting restoration; just two. All the other surviving locomotives from the LNER and its constituents have either been restored (to working order or otherwise) or are under active restoration, leaving just the pair of ex-Great Central Railway (ROD) ‘8K’ 2-8-0s, Nos. 1984 and 2003, in store at the Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum in Australia. Even these have been conserved and are routinely covered in oil to protect their metalwork, so are hardly like the remaining ex-Barry wrecks scattered around Britain.
PAINT IT BLACK AND WHITE
Here’s a thorny subject: livery. A common complaint among enthusiasts is that BR liveries are too predominant, to the expense of arguably more aesthetically pleasing pre-Grouping and ‘Big Four’-era paint schemes. But is that true?
Of the 478 ‘Big Four’ and BR-era locomotives – and excluding those that do not have a livery assigned because they are either awaiting restoration, under overhaul or dismantled – 35% are in either pre-Grouping or ‘Big Four’ liveries, whereas 43% are in BR guise, which adds weight to the claim that BR liveries are indeed predominant. However, that figure is skewed by the 47 eligible BR Standards that, of course, can only authentically wear BR livery.
For a fairer assessment of this claim, we’ve drilled deeper into the numbers and not only excluded those that do not have liveries assigned, but also those that could either only wear BR liveries or those that definitively could not (i.e. those that were withdrawn prior to nationalisation, or never worked under BR auspices). That then leaves locomotives that could either legitimately wear pre-Grouping/‘Big Four’ or BR liveries, giving a fairer pool from which to collect data.
Interestingly, the split is reversed, with just over half of those engines being painted in either pre-Grouping/‘Big Four’ or fictional/other liveries (such as London Transport maroon), and 47% in BR. So, while BR liveries are predominant overall, they’re not as dominant as you might have been led to believe…
●❚ To see the full breakdown, see the data presented right, while the industrial statistics are illustrated on the previous page.