‘Terrier’ steals the show on rival Great Western territory
A ‘FOREIGNER' proved to be one of the stars of the Great Western Society's highly successful Diamond Jubilee Gala Part Two event on October 23/24.
LBSCR A1X ‘Terrier' 0-6-0T No. 32678 Knowle visited Didcot Railway Centre from the Kent & East Sussex Railway and hauled passenger trains over the branch line.
The 1880-built ‘Terrier,' which had covered nearly a million miles by the time the Southern Railway was formed in 1923, first saw service on the KESR in 1940 and pulled the final passenger train when the line closed 60 years ago this year. After a brief spell operating on the Hayling Island branch under BR, it was sold to Butlin's holiday camp at Minehead in 1964, becoming an exhibit in the children's playground.
Bought for preservation, a restoration began in 1975 and was completed in time for it to take part in the reopening of the KESR extension from Northiam to Bodiam in April 2000.
GWR ‘Terriers’
Its appearance at a major GWS anniversary event might well seem unusual in that the class is associated with a rival company to the GWR. However, two ‘Terriers' – No. 43
Gipsy Hill and No. 53 Ashtead, which had been sold in 1925 and 1937 respectively to the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Railway, where they became No. 2 Portishead and No. 5 – were inherited by the GWR when it bought that line in 1940 and closed it.
The pair entered full GWR service as No. 5 Portishead and No. 6, and survived into BR ownership. No. 6 was scrapped in 1948 and
Portishead in 1954.
Also in steam at the gala were the award-winning new Saint 4-6-0 No. 2999 Lady of Legend,
No. 4144, and the oldest working GWR locomotive, Avonside 0-4-0ST No. 1340 Trojan, which was built in 1897 to work at Newport Docks in South Wales.
On static display was repatriated GWR 4-6-0 No. 4079 Pendennis Castle,
which is to be officially launched into traffic at Didcot Railway Centre over the weekend of April 2/3, a fortnight earlier than the Easter bank holiday weekend, as reported in issue 285.
The locomotive underwent the first of its steam tests on August 13 following a marathon 21-year restoration programme, appearing on static display at Didcot's August 28-30 Bank Holiday steam-up, as highlighted in issue 285.
In 1977, the late Sir William McAlpine sold No. 4079 to Western Australia mining company Hamersley Iron for use by enthusiasts among its workforce who had formed the Pilbara Railways Historical Society. However, it made its final run Down Under in October 1994, after which its boiler certificate expired, and with Hamersley declining to fund a huge repair bill, parent company Rio Tinto Zinc Corporation looked for a new home for it.
A preliminary enquiry was made in September 1998 to Nick Pigott, then editor of The Railway Magazine,
now a sister title to Heritage Railway,
who contacted a Great Western Society representative. In short, Rio Tinto agreed to give No. 4079 to the GWS, having been impressed with the facilities on offer at Didcot. The front cover of Heritage Railway issue 16 showed Pendennis Castle being unloaded at Portbury Dock near
Bristol on July 8, 2000.
The high-profile relaunch will include VIP guests such as Sir William's widow, Lady Judy McAlpine, and representatives from Hamersley Iron and Rio Tinto.
‘Terrier’ stays for Christmas
There are no plans to return Pendennis Castle to the main line. It will run at Didcot during 2022 and may afterwards visit other heritage lines. An anniversary reunion event with A3 Pacific Flying Scotsman could well be on the cards; in 1925 when the GWR loaned No. 4079 to the LNER for trials against Gresley's new Pacifics, the Castle outperformed its larger competitors. The GWR displayed Pendennis Castle alongside Flying Scotsman at the 1925 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley with a notice attached proclaiming it to be the most powerful passenger express
locomotive in Britain.
More than 1500 visitors attended the gala over the weekend.
Knowle, which is owned by the Terrier Trust CIO, will now stay at Didcot to work the Steam Into Christmas services on December 4/5, 11/12, 18/19 and 21-23, while No. 4144 will take its place on the KESR for seasonal trains. Didcot will also hold a New Year's Day steam-up.
In the meantime, Pendennis Castle will undergo trials behind closed doors in late November and December pending its official launch. ➜ If you would like to donate to the society's Diamond Jubilee appeal and help Didcot recover from the impact of the pandemic, visit https:// didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/product. php/110/diamond-jubilee-fund