Pendennis Castle back in steam after 27 years!
Once dubbed “the most powerful express passenger locomotive in Britain” when lined up alongside none other than Flying Scotsman, GWR 4-6-0 No. 4079 Pendennis Castle steamed again at Didcot Railway Centre on August 13, decades after being repatriated from Australia, reports Robin Jones.
Once dubbed “the most powerful express passenger locomotive in Britain” when lined up alongside none other than Flying Scotsman, No. 4079 Pendennis Castle steamed again at Didcot Railway Centre on Friday, August 13 – decades after being repatriated from Australia, reports Robin Jones.
It seems almost like yesterday when, on Saturday, June 8, 2000, I met up with Adrian Knowles, of the Great Western Society, at Portbury Dock near Bristol, watching with bated breath the unloading of the Wallenius Wilhemsen roll-on roll-off cargo ship Toba.
It was about 3.30pm and we had a grandstand view from a parked trailer of the distinctive outline of a Swindon-built classic emerging from the murky depths of the ship's hold.
It was GWR 4-6-0 No. 4079 Pendennis Castle, which was on the last lap of a 20,000-mile journey home from the far side of the planet. Five days later, the load was cleared by customs officers and taken by low loader to begin a new life at Didcot Railway Centre in the ownership of the society where its preservation story began in 1964.
A painstakingly thorough restoration that lasted more than 21 years since that Portbury touchdown has seen Pendennis Castle emerge from the Didcot shed to undergo the first of its static steam tests for insurance purposes. The boiler, main steam pipes, header and other major pressurised components had already undergone tests.
All being well, No. 4079 was scheduled to appear in the second of the society's 60th anniversary gala events, Didcot's August 28-30 bank holiday steam up, after we closed for press. For the event, it was lined up to make limited light engine moves but not haul passenger trains until further thorough checks and running-in are completed.
Now headlining those anniversary year celebrations, Pendennis Castle is all set to reprise its role as an ultimate Swindon icon.
No. 4079 was the seventh of GWR chief mechanical engineer Charles Collett's 171 Castles to be built, and was completed at Swindon in February 1924. Incidentally, September 10 this year marks the 150th anniversary of Collett's birth.
It was named after Pendennis Castle near Falmouth, one of Henry VIII's chain of forts built around the south coast to protect England from a French invasion.
No. 4079's claim to fame dates from 1925, when the GWR loaned it to the London & North Eastern Railway for trials against Sir Nigel Gresley's new Pacifics – which included No. 4472 Flying Scotsman.
Heading 16-coach trains on the East Coast Main Line, No. 4079 outperformed its larger rivals. Competing against the larger A1
No. 2545 Diamond Jubilee, it made the ascent from King's Cross to Finsbury Park regularly in less than six minutes, better than anything the Pacifics offered at that stage.
Pendennis Castle was also shown to be more economical in both coal and water on the test runs.
The LNER sent A1 No. 4474 Victor Wild
to the GWR in exchange for comparative trials, but it would not match the Castle's performance on the Plymouth run.
Before returning to the GWR, Pendennis Castle attended the second Wembley Exhibition between May and October 1925, cheekily displayed by the GWR next to Flying Scotsman with a notice proclaiming it to be the most powerful passenger express locomotive in Britain.
Its exploits then became the talk of every schoolboy in Britain.
Saved by molten firebars?
As highlighted in our 60th anniversary feature in issue 282, the Great Western Society was formed by four schoolboys in 1961 who set out with the aim of preserving a Collett 1400 class 0-4-2T.
Three years later, having successfully purchased several items of rolling stock, the society was thought by supporter Mike Higson, owner of The Roundhouse bookshop at Hatch End, to be in favour with BR. Mike, a former LMR fireman, asked the then society chairman Ken Williams to negotiate the purchase of a Castle because BR's higher echelons had previously refused Mike's own application.
So early in 1964, Ken and Mike talked about which Castle would be the best one to preserve. They proposed Nos. 4079 Pendennis Castle; 5029 Nunney Castle; 5051 Earl Bathurst; 5057 Earl Waldegrave; 7011 Banbury Castle; 7019
Fowey Castle; No. 7027 Thornbury Castle; 7029 Clun Castle; and 7032 Denbigh Castle. After much research, Nos. 4079, 7011, 7019, 7029 and 7032 were shortlisted.
On April 24, 1964, a letter was sent to BRB asking for a price, together with a request for an autocoach and three wagons for the GWS.
However, the hand of fate might well have played a part in the unexpected survival of No. 4079.
May 9, 1964 was the 60th anniversary of
City of Truro’s unofficial 100mph ‘first', and publisher Ian Allan Ltd was arranging a Paddington-Plymouth special via Bristol hauled by Castles, as No. 3440 was at that time a static exhibit inside Swindon Museum. The selected engines were Nos. 4079, 7029 and 5054 Earl of Ducie, with standby locomotives Nos. 7025 Sudeley Castle, 7008 Swansea Castle and 7023 Penrice Castle. Specially-selected best Welsh coal was provided for the Castles, which were thoroughly prepared with boilers washed out and tender water tanks cleaned, and two firemen allocated to each.
City of Truro may have been absent, but
Pendennis Castle appeared from the start – determined to be ready to wear its fabled mantle for the occasion.
After hitting 97mph, No. 4079 dropped its fire on to the track; the coal was too hot and had melted the firebars. This failure caused severe damage to the driving wheel axleboxes and the engine was immediately condemned.
It has been conjectured that the choice of high quality, very hot burning coal and the high rate of firing may have contributed to No. 4079's failure.
At Westbury, it was exchanged for No. 6999
Capel Dewi Hall. On the return from Exeter to Bristol, Clun Castle completed the journey four minutes faster than Truro had allegedly done.
Poor Pendennis seemed to have become a prime candidate for the cutter's torch at it stood dumped at Westbury. However, its stricken condition and isolation may well have lowered the asking price to below that of the other Castles under consideration.
A new approach was made to BR in a letter dated May 28, 1964, requesting a price for No. 4079. A reply dated June 30, 1964 quoted £1750 for No. 4079 in the condition in which it stood, plus extra for repairs at Swindon.
The deal was struck, but it took seven months for No. 4079 to be moved to Swindon, where it was overhauled to a high standard and outshopped in March 1965.
No. 4079 was then moved to Southall and appeared at one of the first pre-Didcot society open days at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, in September 1965.
In 1967, Mike sold Pendennis Castle to
Pat Whitehouse, who had helped save the Talyllyn Railway in 1951 and become one of the pioneers of the heritage railway sector, later signing a lease of part of the Tyseley roundhouse depot which evolved into today's Tyseley Locomotive Works.
However, Pat was asked by the seller to retract his offer, as two other enthusiasts – the late Bill McAlpine, the multi-millionaire construction company supremo, and his friend John Gretton had made a higher bid.
Pat agreed, but diverted his attention to Clun Castle, which had also hauled the final BR-era steam working out of Paddington on June 11, 1965 (on November 20, 1965, Pendennis Castle
“From the start, the overhaul of No. 4079 was an all-volunteer project, carried out by members of a 20-strong pool working every other Saturday, as opposed to a big chequebook exercise.”
became the last Castle to arrive in Paddington before the end of BR steam).
Pat and fellow Dart Valley Railway director John Evans made up the shortfall in a fund set up to buy No. 7029, transferring the locomotive to a new company, 7029 Clun Castle Ltd. No. 7029, and Pendennis Castle was used on specials in the first weekend of March 1967 to mark the closure of Birmingham Snow Hill station and the GWR through route from there to Birkenhead.
Under its new ownership, No. 4079 was initially based at Didcot before the society moved in. In 1971, after BR relaxed its post1968 near-total main line steam ban (only Flying Scotsman was the exception), Pendennis Castle was among the first wave of preserved locomotives to be allowed back on the national network.
It was included in a list of 23 preserved locomotives approved for main line running, on just five routes — one of which was Birmingham-Didcot.
No. 4079 moved to Market Overton in Rutland in 1972. On April 6, 1974, No. 4079 was reunited with No. 4472 Flying Scotsman for two steam specials, working a return trip from Newport to Shrewsbury.
Sold to Australia
By 1977, Bill McAlpine had become sole owner of No. 4079, which was in storage and awaiting repairs at the former Steamtown museum in Carnforth – today the base of West Coast Railways.
The heritage sector was shocked when Bill – who four years earlier had repatriated the stranded Flying Scotsman from California as rumours circulated that it could be cut up – decided to sell No. 4079 to Western Australian mining concern Hamersley Iron.
Sir Russell Maddigan, managing director of the Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation, parent
company of Hamersley, promised to acquire a steam locomotive for use by a group of his workers; two years earlier they had formed the Pilbara Railways Historical Society, on the company's 240-mile line across the desert landscapes between Dampier, Tom Price and Paraburdoo.
Hamersley had already given the society a collection of redundant diesels to get it started, but found difficulty in obtaining a standard gauge steam locomotive because the majority of Australian systems were 3ft 6in or 5ft
3in gauge.
Originally, Maddigan offered to buy No. 4472 but settled for No. 4079 and had it restored to working order by the Carnforth workforce. The job involved boiler repairs and a new smokebox tubeplate.
Pendennis Castle made its farewell UK tour from Saltley to Didcot on May 29, 1977, before running from Dorridge to Avonmouth Docks two days later. It was loaded on to MV Wishref, which sailed on June 4.
On March 26, 1978, Pendennis Castle was towed 100 miles and loaded aboard the Iron Baron for the voyage to the Pilbara. Unloaded at Dampier on April 29, 1978, it was handed over to the Pilbara society a week later.
Its first passenger trip in Australia was a school outing for 60 children on November 7, 1978, with a 5000-gallon water tank coupled behind it.
No. 4079 underwent modifications in 1980 and was used for excursion trains on the company's ore-carrying railways.
After further modifications, it was moved 1050 miles by road to Perth for an historic reunion with Flying Scotsman, which was undertaking a tour of Australia as part of the country's bicentennial celebrations, on September 17, 1989.
During the 1990s, after various difficulties and with the expiry of the boiler certificate,
Pendennis Castle made a final run in October 1994.
Hamersley Iron was not prepared to pay a repair bill of 240,000 Australian dollars, and repairs were becoming uneconomical after fully electronic signalling was installed on the Hamersley system in 1994. Accordingly, the locomotive was stored for several years.
Aware of its immense heritage importance, Rio Tinto began looking for a new home for No. 4079.
A preliminary inquiry was made in September 1998 to Nick Pigott, then editor of The Railway Magazine, now a sister title to
Heritage Railway.
Nick wasted no time and immediately contacted Adrian Knowles, who was at Goodwood races that day. Adrian sprang into
action, and prepared a case for Didcot Railway Centre having the locomotive.
Rio Tinto plc visited Didcot and was so impressed by the facilities on offer and the achievements clocked up by the society since 1961 that it decided this was the perfect future home for No. 4079.
Once shipping was arranged, helped by an extremely welcome fast-track Heritage Lottery Fund grant of £37,300 that covered 75% of the cost, No. 4079 departed from Fremantle on Easter Sunday 2000, on board the rollon roll-off container ship Toba for the long voyage home.
Taking the opposite way to its outward journey, No. 4079 travelled via the Pacific Rim, the Panama Canal, the Eastern Seaboard of the USA and across the Atlantic – making it the first 4-6-0 to circumnavigate the world, and only the second steam locomotive to do so after Flying Scotsman.
The long road back
Once Pendennis Castle was safe and secure on British soil, speculation mounted as to when it would run again.
At first, it was placed on public display at Didcot, complete with a coat of Australian red desert dust, while some internal parts were removed for overhaul.
At first it was hoped to have it running again by 2004, the 40th anniversary of that landmark Ian Allan railtour in 1964. When that did not happen, 2007 became a target date, marking not only the 1967 railtours but the sale to Australia in 1977.
It was later hoped that it could run in 2014 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Ian Allan tour, and then haul a special in 2017 to remember the end of the Castles in BR service 50 years on. Again, nothing came of any of these aspirations.
From the start, the overhaul of No. 4079 was an all-volunteer project, carried out by members of a 20-strong pool working every other Saturday, as opposed to a big chequebook exercise.
Only a handful of jobs were contracted out, including tyre turning and specialist welding to a crack in the cast iron smokebox saddle.
Project manager Drew Fermor said the team was determined to complete the project to a high standard while keeping costs down.
The boiler was lifted from the frames in 2003 and temporarily returned 12 years later to attach pipes and other fittings. In 2016, the team concentrated on cladding the boiler, which had previously been carried by No. 5086 Viscount Horne. In 2018, the society's board decided not to register any of its locomotives for main line running, on the basis that a more reliable revenue stream would result from hiring them out to other heritage lines.
Furthermore, essential and very expensive modifications to enable them to run on today's national network, such as lowering of cabs and fitting TPWS, OTMR and other requirements, would denigrate their original and authentic appearances.
It is conjectured that Pendennis Castle may spend the next season or two running on Didcot's lines before being hired out, but any hopes that it may one day head main line specials again appear to have been permanently extinguished.
A society statement said: “There's no doubt that the repatriation of Pendennis Castle has warmed many hearts that were saddened when the engine left for Australia. Its contribution to the status of the Didcot collection is beyond question and future generations of preservationists will have good reason to remember the generosity of Hamersley Iron and Rio Tinto with gratitude.”