Dame Vera Lynn: The Moors’ sweetheart
As the North Yorkshire Moors Railway starts to overhaul one of its most popular locomotives, War Department 2-10-0 Dame Vera Lynn, we hear the story of how it was brought back to the UK and became a preservation record-holder.
As the North Yorkshire Moors Railway starts to overhaul one of its most popular locomotives, War Department 2-10-0 Dame Vera Lynn, we hear the story of how it was brought back to the UK and became a preservation record-holder.
Just before 4pm on June 2, 1998, War Department 2-10-0 No. 3672 Dame Vera Lynn rolled to a gentle halt in Pickering station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, with a banner stretched across the track in front of it reading ‘100,000 miles not out'.
This wartime workhorse had just set a heritage railway record. At 3.56pm, as it passed milepost 7 on the approach to the station, it had become the first steam locomotive to clock up 100,000 miles in preservation.
At that figure, your car would be due for a very major service – if you didn't simply throw it onto the scrap heap. Of course, the NYMR has no intention of doing the latter with Dame Vera Lynn – but it needs your help to fund the heavy overhaul that the locomotive requires if it is to return to steam in 2024/25, to mark its 80th birthday and the same anniversary of VE Day.
Popular performer
Many locomotives become synonymous with the railways where they have resided for decades – but others become inextricably linked with a particular era of that railway's history. Dame Vera Lynn is a classic example of the latter. Think of the NYMR in the 1990s, and it is one of the engines that springs instantly to mind.
Powerful enough to take the steep gradients and the heaviest trains in its stride at this major tourist attraction, and providing the perfect period set-piece for its hugely popular wartime weekends, it's no surprise that the ‘Dub-Dee' was such a prolific performer at that time.
Yet racking up 100,000 miles in the space of one 10-year boiler certificate was but the latest milestone, and a relatively brief interlude, in the story of an engine that had already travelled widely before it arrived at the NYMR.
Named after the famous singer and entertainer known as ‘the Forces' Sweetheart', No. 3672 has, in preservation, become something of a symbol to commemorate the railways' role in the Second World War. Yet, although Robert Riddles' WD Austerity 2-8-0s
“I’d love to find out if it did work in Egypt... we can’t find any record of it being used.”
and 2-10-0s were designed and built for the war effort, this particular example seems to have played relatively little part in it.
Constructed by North British of Glasgow in 1944 and renumbered 73672 within months, it and 15 of its classmates were sent to Egypt – but as far as is known, they never turned a wheel in anger while there, and sat out the remainder of the war in storage. With the end of hostilities, they were all declared surplus in October 1945 and sold to the Hellenic State Railways, the national network of Greece, being shipped across the Mediterranean the following January and given the new class designation of ‘Lb'.
“I'd love to find out if it did work in Egypt,” said Ian Foot, an NYMR driver, a director of the North York Moors Historical Railway Trust, and the project co-ordinator for
No. 3672's current overhaul.
“But it's doubtful – we have looked around and we can't find any record of it being used. It probably wasn't realised that they were already surplus to requirements.
“That's probably why the Greeks thought they were on to a good thing – they were practically new engines.”
The ‘Dub-Dees' were designed as nothing more than slow, plodding freight haulers, but preservation in Britain was by no means the first time that No. 3672 – renumbered as Lb960 and converted to oil-firing in Greece – would work passenger trains. The class was used on the Athens to Istanbul express until diesels took over in 1967, coincidentally the same year that the last WD 2-8-0s were withdrawn from service on BR.
The Greek ‘Dub-Dees' lasted more than a decade longer, thanks to heavy overhauls in 1971/72, when they received new tyres, and reconditioned boilers and fireboxes, before being put into storage again. With the Cold War at its height, many European countries set aside so-called ‘strategic reserves' of steam locomotives to be called into action in the event of a conf lict.
Steamed occasionally to keep them in working order, the Greek WDs were last used on snowplough duties in the winter of 1978/79. The following summer, two intrepid British preservationists came calling, to bring two of them back home.
Big engines needed
It was not the NYMR that set things in motion for the repatriation of No. 3672, but another line further south with a similar requirement for large, powerful engines on its steep gradients – the Mid-Hants Railway.
Leading the project was John Bunch, whose interest in railways was first sparked by a WD 2-10-0 and other army locomotives. As a teenager in the 1960s, together with friends from the Farnborough Railway Enthusiasts Club, he was a regular visitor to the Longmoor Military Railway near his home.
“If anyone questioned us, we'd say ‘yes, sir… no, sir… of course, sir',” he remembered, “and they'd say ‘okay, we haven't seen you'.
“As we got older and got to know people, we'd help to clean the fires and the locos, and in return we'd have footplate rides and free tea in the NAAFI canteen.
“It was a different world back then – perhaps they were looking at us as potential recruits!”
By the end of the following decade,
John had become the MHR's Locomotive Superintendent, and the railway was planning to extend back to Alton – over the punishing 1-in-60 gradients that led steam-era footplate crews to nickname the line ‘The Alps'. “We were certain we didn't have sufficient heavy motive power to go to Alton,” explained John. “The Southern Moguls and the Urie S15 were unique engines, and we didn't want them running day in, day out up that bank.
“The railway had to project what Alton would bring in – it didn't totally materialise, but Ken Woodroffe, the chief executive, said we needed five sets of five coaches, one of them a dining train, and at least three engines in the height of summer.”
John's thoughts initially turned to one of the engines he remembered from his happy days at Longmoor, WD 2-10-0 No. 600 Gordon, which had initially gone to Didcot Railway Centre for preservation before moving to a permanent home on the Severn Valley Railway. But his approach to move the big blue machine to the MHR was turned down.
“I chased around, and nobody was interested in bringing engines to us,” he said, “but I had a book on military locos which said there were still some WDs in Syria and Greece. I put the suggestion to the board, and Ken said, ‘follow it up'.”
All Greek to us
As is so often the case, a network of contacts proved invaluable. John got in touch with a member of the Harrow & Wembley Society of Model Engineers, whose wife was Greek and took in students from the country.
One of them, named Tassonis, was the son of a senior signal engineer on the Hellenic State Railways (OSE). His father spoke perfect English, and was able to arrange a meeting with the system's chief engineer in the traction department. And so, in July 1979, John and his assistant chief engineer, Barry Eden, boarded a plane at Heathrow and f lew to Athens.
Arriving at the OSE head office, said John, “there was a terrible barrier – we didn't speak a word of Greek, and nobody on reception spoke English, so they were making frantic phone calls,” until finally, the visitors got to see the chief engineer, Stamatis Boudouris, a “superb guy” who also spoke flawless English.
Over coffee and biscuits, John and Barry explained that they were from a preservation society in the UK, seeking to buy some of the OSE's steam locomotives – specifically, two WDs, and one of the former US Army Transportation Corps S160 2-8-0s. Stamatis's reply was: “We haven't got any steam engines.”
“We explained where we thought they were, from the information we had,” remembered John, “so he gave us a pass covering the whole of the Greek railway system, and asked us to do an audit of all their steam locos!
“I think they did know they had them – but they didn't have a record in the Athens office.”
They made another fortuitous contact that evening. “There's always a stroke of luck,” said John. “They're a very hospitable people – Stamatis invited us for dinner, and he and his son took us to the Greek State Railway Museum.”
There they met Nick Sbarounis, an engineering student and railway enthusiast. “He offered to come with us as an interpreter,” recalled John. “He knew the railway, and it was a godsend.”
They discovered a treasure trove of locomotives, equipment and spares, with “crates of steam loco parts” still in the workshops in Athens, where they started their tour of the network.
“They hadn't scrapped anything,” said John. “We went to one narrow gauge rack railway and couldn't believe it – the locos and coaches were still in the shed, tools still in the workshops, and there was no vandalism. It was like the doors had just closed.”
Finding that the engines in the Athens sheds were not in very good condition, they next tried the locomotive graveyard at Tithorea, which John described as “a halt in the middle of nowhere”.
“Nick had an exam that day and couldn't be with us,” he said, “and a guy challenged us on the station. We showed him the letter with the OSE logo on it, but he couldn't read, so he just pointed to the depot and we went in!”
Getting the goat
Having logged the WDs and S160s at Tithorea, John and Barry finally came to Thessalonika, Greece's second city and often referred to, even by the Greeks themselves, as Salonika. It was here that, as far as is known, the future Dame Vera Lynn had been allocated for its entire OSE career, along with most of the Greek WDs.
Here, remembered John, were “two yards rammed full of locos in store, still with all their fittings, numberplates, whistles, everything.”
They also found USA 0-6-0Ts still in action as ‘mobile steam heating boilers', some of which had been stripped of their tanks and given second-hand tenders.
“It took over a week to inspect all the WDs and S160s,” John recalled, “and we'd only booked to go out for two weeks!”
Security around Greek aircraft is tight, but the same is true of their railways, as the duo discovered at Thessalonika. “They had armed guards on the depots, and the shedmasters were in watchtowers,” John continued.
“We pitched up at the main shed area and had a job to get through the gate – but the shedmaster shouted over the tannoy from his tower, ‘Hello English!'
“That was all the English he knew – but then he shouted in Greek and the guards let us in.”
In an odd way, the heavy security also highlighted the Greeks' hospitality: “We were taking spare parts off another loco and one of the guards came over, shouting and pointing his gun at us.
“We put our hands up and showed him the OSE letter. Then he locked us in his guardroom, with a goat, while he went off to find someone who could speak English – but he gave us coffee, with the goat's milk.”
The only person who spoke English, it turned out, was the chief engineer. “He was tearing a strip off this guard and I was saying, ‘it's okay, no offence taken' because it was just so funny.”
Air miles
As well as No. 3672, John and Barry settled on classmate No. 3652 (OSE No. 951) – swapping their original tenders for better examples from Nos. 966 and 952 respectively – and S160 No. 3278, plus two brand new spare WD fireboxes and an S160 firebox from the stores.
“We picked the best, but there wasn't much between them,” said John. “We earmarked No. 953 as a back-up, but it was as good as No. 951.” Choosing the engines had been easy, however, compared to getting them home.
“I can't describe the amount of paperwork and meetings,” John said. “Even government ministers got involved – and towards the end, Nana Mouskouri, the Greek singer, was saying ‘they can't have the steam engines unless they return the Elgin Marbles!'
“Luckily, we had signed paperwork that committed Athens to selling us two British locos and one American engine, delivered to the docks. The British Embassy was a great help.”
“The shedmaster shouted over the tannoy ‘Hello English!’ That was all the English he knew.”
Sometimes accompanied by John Pettegree when Barry was unable to get leave from his job as a physics teacher in Southampton, John reckoned he “must have gone over there three dozen times – the only way we could communicate with Athens was via Telex.”
Serendipity took a hand in the proceedings here too, when airline owner Freddie Laker “got to hear about it somehow or other,” said John. “We'd been talking to air crews in the hotel bars out there.
“He got one of his managers to get in touch and offered us free travel and hotels when they had spare capacity, saying ‘any time you're going, just tell us' – and he didn't even know us! How amazing is that?”
Mounting costs
But even with some of the travel and accommodation thrown in for free, “the cost just escalated. The Achilles heel of it was that the locos were signed over to us with free onboard loading – so we didn't pay for them until they were off-loaded in the UK.
“I had to put up a bond through my bank with a letter of credit to OSE, so they knew we were serious – but at the time, the railway's funds were going into the Alton extension.”
As far as fundraising was concerned, John added: “We were overshadowed by Duke of Gloucester. We wanted to call the project ‘Mission Impossible', but David Wilcock at Steam Railway pointed out that the ‘Duke' already had that title!”
To raise the money, John persuaded other members of the locomotive department to pledge funds, in return for shares in the engines when they arrived in Britain. But the negotiations took so long – five years in total – that, he explained: “When it came to it, people had got married or bought new cars, and I was left holding the baby – so I was in massive debt even before they left Greece.
“I had to remortgage my house – at a time when the interest rates were running rampant at 15% – and it got to the stage where I was thinking ‘is it worth it?'”
By the time everything was ready for the three engines to come home, John had to conclude that he could only afford two of them. That Dame Vera Lynn is in the UK today is thanks to David Milham, the wealthy businessman who had founded the Lavender Line at Isfield in 1983. He agreed to buy
“I can’t describe the amount of paperwork and meetings – even government ministers got involved.”
No. 3672, while the MHR got the other WD and the S160.
But even then, the costs kept piling up. “Have you ever tried to charter a heavy lift ship?” asked John rhetorically. “We found out that the cranes on Salonika docks wouldn't be able to lift the engines.
“We got a Telex message giving us about a week's notice of when the ship would be there – but when we turned up at the docks office, they said, ‘ship, what ship?' Our hearts sank – it had been diverted!”
They’ll always be in England
The two WDs and the S160 finally arrived at Ipswich docks on August 28, 1984, on board the Greek heavy lift ship Empros. John led the restoration of the MHR's WD to British condition – taking the number 90775, the next in sequence from the 25 examples that ran on BR – and then the S160 in Longmoor blue livery. Today, following a period at the NYMR, No. 90775 is based at the North Norfolk Railway, while the S160 has recently moved to the Churnet Valley Railway for overhaul.
Dame Vera Lynn, however, was the first to steam. David Milham made a £5 bet with John that he would get his WD back into traffic first – and won the wager.
He engaged Norman Payne, formerly the boilersmith at the Bluebell Railway, NYMR and MHR, to carry out a rapid overhaul of No. 3672, converting it back to coal firing. The engine returned to steam just 11 months after its arrival from Greece, with Dame Vera herself carrying out the naming ceremony at Isfield on August 6, 1985.
Carrying a hybrid livery of BR lined green with WD markings, No. 3672 hauled brake van rides at Isfield for nine months – but was far too big for a line just three-quarters of a mile long, so when Clifford Brown made an offer to buy the ‘Dub-Dee', David was willing to sell.
Born in the North East, Clifford Brown emigrated to the United States on the Queen Elizabeth in 1954 with just $200 in his pocket, and went on to make his fortune with a firm producing decorative ironwork. Oddly enough, he met his wife while serving with the British Army in Thessalonika.
A supporter of the NYMR, he later repatriated ‘Schools' 4-4-0 No. 926 Repton from the US and took it to the ‘Moors', though when he was seeking a home for the WD, it was to the MHR that he turned first, briefly bringing the three ex-Greek engines together on the line for which they had been intended.
“It was only at the Mid-Hants for a short time, and it never steamed there,” said John. “I think he was looking for the railway to overhaul it – the work it needed wasn't massive, but the railway didn't have the money at the time.”
Ref lecting on his efforts, John concluded: “It aged me – but I don't regret doing it. I'm pleased we managed to get these historic engines back to the UK, and that they have a secure future.”
Hard graft
Receiving its overhaul at Grosmont works instead of Ropley, Dame Vera Lynn returned to steam on April 11, 1989, and quickly proved its worth on what is arguably the toughest railway in preservation. Even on the twisting 1-in-49 bank to Goathland, it was able to haul a 10-coach train when the demands of the peak summer season required it.
Sadly, Clifford Brown wasn't around to see the locomotive attain its 100,000-mile record. He died in October 1997 at the age of 71, having gifted both No. 3672 and Repton to the North York Moors Historical Railway Trust.
Dame Vera Lynn was finally withdrawn from service in November 1998, with 113,000 miles to its credit.
It had one more moment of glory six years later, being chosen for display at the National Railway Museum's Railfest event of 2004, representing the wartime era in a celebration of 200 years of railway history.
From there, it moved to Ian Riley's then Bury workshops to be assessed for an overhaul – but on this occasion, it wasn't to be.
“I wasn't involved then,” said Ian Foot, “but I can only assume that the quotation wasn't acceptable to the then trust board, and it came back to the NYMR – but then we lost the momentum because it went into store.”
As the line's former head of traction and rolling stock, he explained: “The railway wanted locos that didn't need too much work and could be turned around quickly, but Dame Vera Lynn wasn't one of them because it had been standing outside for years, so it went to the back of the queue.”
‘We’ll Steam Again’
However, many Moors Line members and volunteers, with happy memories of No. 3672's first stint in service, were determined that it shouldn't be forgotten – and what is best described as a Friends group for the locomotive got together to raise money for its overhaul.
In 2013, the group launched a campaign titled We'll Steam Again, in homage to Dame Vera's wartime song We'll Meet Again. Sir William McAlpine became the group's patron, and following his death in 2018, his widow, Lady Judy McAlpine, took over the role.
The group has 64 supporters, all NYMR members, staff or volunteers, and has so far raised £175,000 – enough to begin work in earnest, starting with the dispatch of the tender to Ian Riley for a contract overhaul (see News).
“He has previous experience of WD tenders,” explained Ian Foot – having overhauled the tender for the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway's 2-8-0 No. 90733.
The locomotive itself has a slot booked in the works at Grosmont. “It's in the official overhaul plan,” said Ian, “but we'll do as much work with our group as we can.”
The boiler shop is currently working on the boilers from Bulleid West Country 4-6-2 No. 34101 Hartland, BR Standard 4MT 4-6-0 No. 75029, 2-6-4T No. 80135 and Bagnall 0-4-0ST No. 2702. “So it's a tad busy at the moment,” Ian said, “but we've got in mind that – provided we have enough money – we'll fund temporary staff to work on Dame Vera Lynn's boiler.”
Fortunately, he continued, an inspection of the WD's boiler has shown it to be “in better condition than we dared hope – some parts are actually thicker than the original drawings specified. We'll replace the front barrel section and tubeplate; we're not sure about the rear tubeplate, but we're assuming we'll have to replace it.
“The firebox is not too bad – it just needs the traditional stuff. There's wastage around the foundation ring, but it's not excessive and we can weld new sections in.”
One more job on the boiler is the result of the locomotive's long period in open storage. “The firebox backhead needs a couple of new inserts,” said Ian, “because the rain coming in has worn a groove in the platework.”
As for the engine's bottom half, he said: “We won't really know until it's lifted, but at first glance the frames and stretchers don't look too bad. She's had a hard life – but that's what she was designed to do.”
A new smokebox and rear dragbox are already to hand, made at the same time as those for No. 90775 when the latter was under overhaul at the NYMR 20 years ago.
One expensive job that is already known to be required, however, is a new axle for the front pony truck. Ultrasonic testing of this
part, said Ian, “was inconclusive as to whether there were any cracks,” so to be certain, it must be replaced.
‘The People’s Engine’
The cost of all this is estimated at more than £600,000; on top of the £175,000 already raised, the group is aiming for another £450,000, giving a total of £625,000 as a contingency for any extra work needed.
“The railway will have to contribute,” said Ian, “unless the appeal goes ballistic.” But every pound you can give will bring this much-loved engine that bit closer to completion.
It may have played little, if any, part in the war effort itself – but its name alone gives it a powerful link to a period of history that still fascinates many.
“My father served with the army in Greece,” said Ian, “and Dame Vera was his pin-up – like thousands of others!”
With Dame Vera herself having died just over a year ago, on June 18, 2020, he added: “We want to keep her name alive and honoured.”
But it's not so much this engine's service history for which it is remembered anyway. It was Dame Vera Lynn's period of operation in the 1990s that left such fond memories for NYMR volunteers and visitors. In that regard, it's an example of how railway preservation itself can inspire whole new generations.
Among those working on its latest overhaul are members of the NYMR's junior volunteer group – who, being aged as young as 14, can't even remember No. 3672's previous stint in traffic. “But their mums and dads can!” said Ian.
If everyone else out there with similar recollections gave a little to the appeal, it would be well on its way.
“If only I had a pound for every member of the public who's said, ‘oh, I remember Dame Vera Lynn' – or ‘that big green engine',” said Ian. “As a driver, I've had that conversation time after time.
“We call it ‘the people's engine'.”