THE ROSTER
LOCOMOTIVES IN FOCUS
GWR & CONSTITUENTS
2874: This ex-Barry ‘28XX’s’ driving and pony truck wheelsets returned to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway on August 15 from South Devon Railway Engineering. They had received new tyres and had their axle journals turned, as well as replacement of rivets in the balance weights and five of the crankpins. Work is now under way to replace the wasted rear end of the Churchward 2-8-0’s frames and assemble its new cab.
Its owning group, the 2874 Trust, is among the beneficiaries in the latest round of the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s £50 million Heritage Emergency Fund (see News). It has received £3,000 to help it restart its engineering skills training project for volunteers, which was originally supported by a £57,400 lottery grant last year (SR489). The training programme was put on hold while the GWSR closed for the lockdown, but now that the workshops at Toddington have reopened, the grant will be spent on additional tools and protective equipment for the volunteers. 5043: With workshop staff and some volunteers having gradually returned to Tyseley Locomotive Works since July, ‘Castle’ Earl of Mount Edgcumbe has taken the first major step in its ‘ten-yearly’ overhaul, with its boiler having been lifted from the frames.
Vintage Trains chairman Michael Whitehouse said: “Most of the remedial work has been completed and we are now preparing the boiler for ultrasonic testing and inspection. All tubes and superheaters are in stock and will shortly be refitted to enable a hydraulic test to be undertaken, and then the locomotive will be reassembled and repainted ready for service in mid-2021.
“7029 remains fully serviceable and awaits its return to the main line in spring 2021. Double-headed double-chimney ‘Castles’ becomes tantalisingly closer!”
SR & CONSTITUENTS
W24: Repairs to ‘O2’ Calbourne’s steam-era tanks are under way at Havenstreet after it was discovered that their condition did not warrant replacement. New boiler tubes have been fitted.
An emergency £24,000 appeal (SR509) is within £4,000 of its target, which will enable the LSWR engine to star at the 50th anniversary of the Isle of Wight Steam Railway in 2021, in malachite green. It is hoped that the ‘O2’ will steam as early as December.
30053: Cracks in the copper firebox of the LSWR ‘M7’ 0-4-4T are being repaired under contract at the North Norfolk Railway.
A new ‘J’ pipe (which connects the regulator valve in the dome to the main steam pipe) will be replaced as part of the boiler overhaul for the Swanage Railway-based Drummond engine.
The 115-year-old ‘M7’s’ frames remain in Dorset. It last steamed on the ‘Purbeck Line’ in 2017.
34053: Rebuilt ‘Battle of Britain’ Sir Keith Park arrived at its new Spa Valley Railway home on September 2. As reported in SR509, the Bulleid ‘Light Pacific’ is to be permanently based on the Tunbridge Wells-Eridge line following the establishment of a new partnership between the railway and the locomotive’s owner, Southern Locomotives Ltd. ‘SKP’ was due to be launched into SVR service during a running weekend on September 12/13. It has not hauled a revenue-earning train since November, at its previous Swanage base, having spent the last eight months at Tyseley Locomotive Works receiving attention to its bottom end.
Work has recommenced on the overhaul of rebuilt ‘West Country’
No. 34028 Eddystone at SLL’s Herston works, with the aim of returning the Bulleid ‘Pacific’ to steam by spring 2021.
The group has also authorised Tyseley to begin the contract overhaul of ‘Battle of Britain’ No. 34070 Manston, thanks to financial support from shareholders.
If fundraising permits, this engine could be back in steam next year, and is expected to return to Swanage.
LMS & CONSTITUENTS
828: The Caledonian Railway 0-6-0 is poised for a return at the Strathspey Railway, after an overhaul taking just six months.
It had been due to reach the end of its ‘ten-year’ boiler certificate in April, but with the lockdown suspending services in March, it was decided to commence work on the overhaul early, on the 18th of that month.
Since then, Aviemore shed staff, led by Nathan Lightowler with the assistance of Adam Dalgleish and Northern Steam Engineering, have overhauled the boiler, including the replacement of 180 firebox side stays and a re-tube, while welding work on the copper firebox was undertaken by Derek Brewster.
The boiler was steam-tested and received a new certificate on August 17, and was lifted back into the frames on August 24, with the engine making its first moves on September 4.
957: A return to steam within the anniversary year of its starring role in The Railway Children could just be in prospect for the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway ‘Ironclad’.
The boiler of the Barton Wright Class ‘25’ was craned back into the frames at the Keighley & Worth
Valley Railway’s Haworth shed on August 31, following successful hydraulic and steam tests the previous month (SR509).
It is being restored in the fictional ‘Great Northern & Southern Railway’ green livery that it carried for its appearance as the ‘Green Dragon’ in the 1970 film. Said volunteer Mike Curtis: “There is plenty left to do to progress the locomotive to the in-frames steam test stage, so we cannot predict when the locomotive will re-enter service. It would be nice to have it somewhere near by December 21 2020, the 50th anniversary of The Railway Children film release.”
5593: Approximately £70,000 has been raised for Kolhapur’s overhaul appeal since its June launch. This “will fund a significant amount of the work required on the locomotive’s chassis and will enable us to commence the overhaul later this year,” reports Vintage Trains chairman Michael Whitehouse. “We still need to raise further funds for other works, especially the boiler” and “are launching a new initiative, ‘The Jubilee Drivers Club’ with the incentive to drive Kolhapur at our depot in return for sponsorship for the boiler”. See www.kolhapur.co.uk
16440: This Fowler ‘Jinty’ 0-6-0T is to return to steam at the Midland Railway – Butterley in its striking, but inauthentic Crimson Lake livery, following a bottom-end overhaul by Riley & Son (E) Ltd.
LMS maroon was applied to the ‘3F’ during the formative years of steam operation at Butterley in the 1970s and early 1980s, and although never originally carried by the class, was immortalised by a ‘OO’ gauge Hornby model of the period. The locomotive, BR No. 47357, also ran in a similarly fictional BR red livery, and later authentic LMS and BR black, before being withdrawn in September 2004.
Its frames have been sent to Ian Riley’s works for a contract overhaul, and are expected to be completed to the ‘rolling chassis’ stage within six months; during late August the cylinders were being bored out for the fitting of new liners. The work has been made possible by a “substantial bequest” left to the Midland Railway Trust, specifically for steam locomotive restoration projects.
The ‘Jinty’s’ boiler is nearing the end of a contract overhaul at the North Norfolk Railway, while Butterley volunteers will prepare the cab, bunker, tanks and boiler cladding for the engine’s reassembly. 45305: The ‘Black Five’ has been given an extension to its boiler certificate, which was due to expire in August. The Great Central Railway based 4-6-0 will now be withdrawn in October 2021. It is not yet known whether ‘Alderman A. E. Draper’ will return to the main line for railtour work during that time.
BR STANDARD
71000: Tyseley Locomotive Works has confirmed that Duke of Gloucester’s boiler will be back on the locomotive’s frames by the end of September, according to Trevor Tuckley, chairman of the BR Class 8 Steam Locomotive Trust.
As this issue was going to press, the coupled wheels, cannon boxes and roller bearings of the unique Riddles ‘Pacific’ were all expected to return to South Devon Railway Engineering in preparation for the reassembly of the centre and rear coupled axles, while the front driving wheels are ready for their new crank axle when this is completed.
76077: Toddington Standard Locomotive Ltd has launched a component sponsorship scheme to raise funds for the restoration of its ex-Barry ‘4MT’ 2-6-0 at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway.
Parts available to sponsor include the worksplates (£150 each), restoration of the four buffers (£250 each), casting and machining of the brake ejector valve (£500 each), a new chimney (£2,500, in five lots of £500), the smokebox door and its securing dart (both £1,000, in two £500 lots), its two handles (£350 each) and hinges (£500 each), six cab window frames at £500 each, and the overhaul of the vacuum and steam chest pressure gauges at £150 each. The reversing gearbox will cost £10,500 in total, and with full forward or back gear being 75% cut-off, it is being offered in 75 lots of £140. For more details, visit www.standard76077.com
Ian Crowder, the GWSR’s press officer, would welcome any information about the ‘Mogul’s’ latter-day BR career, particularly around the time of its visit to the Southern Region for overhaul at Eastleigh in 1964 (see SR507’s Roster). He said: “I have picked up conflicting dates for the Eastleigh overhaul from a couple of sources, and that it was run in on services both to Bournemouth and to Waterloo – and, anecdotally, that it worked back home on the front of a parcels train from Southampton. I have a copy of the engine’s record card, but it doesn’t have much information and it wasn’t added to after about 1962, so we don’t know how many miles it covered. It also seems to have been a fairly camera shy engine.”