First engine out of Barry hauls its last train – for now
MIDLAND 4F 0-6-0 No. 43924 – which made history as the first of 213 locomotives to be rescued from Dai Woodham’s Barry scrapyard – has bowed out of Keighley & Worth Valley Railway traffic after its extended boiler certificate expired on New Year’s Eve.
The 4F, known as The Big Goods, went out on a high note with a week of hauling six-coach trains on the Mince Pie Specials, even with two superheaters blocked off.
Built at the Midland Railway works at Derby, the locomotive entered service as No. 3924 in 1920 and went straight to Wellingborough shed, from where it handled much of the ironstone and coal traffic down the Midland Main Line to London, as well as handling more general goods duties in the opposite direction to Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham.
March 1930 saw it transferred to Saltley shed in Birmingham. In July 1937 it moved to Gloucester (Barnwood), where it stayed for 25 years, working on freight traffic north to Evesham, Worcester and Birmingham, and south to Bristol or Bath. To reach Birmingham, the trips involved climbing the Lickey Incline.
Rescue appeal
In 1951, it was paired with its current Fowler tender. As No. 43924, its postnationalisation number, it occasionally headed passenger trains and helped out with summer Saturday excursion traffic. August 1962 saw its last move, to Bristol (Barrow Road), from where it was withdrawn in July 1965. It arrived at Dai Woodham’s scrapyard in October that same year.
After the end of BR standard gauge steam haulage in August 1968, there were no more ex-main line steam locomotives to be bought straight out of service; and Woodham Bros apart (which, uniquely, had held off cutting up its rows of rusting engines in favour of the more profitable wagon scrapping trade), there was indeed a scarcity. However, more standard gauge revival schemes by then were taking off and needed engines of their own.
As part of the deal with BR, a clause insisted that a locomotive bought for scrap could not be resold for anything other than that. The purpose of this restrictive clause was to prevent unscrupulous dealers buying a locomotive at scrap value and then selling it on at a highly inflated price to a preservation group.
Therefore, before it could sell any locomotive for heritage purposes, Woodham Brothers had to obtain special dispensation from BR to allow the sale to proceed.
The July 1968 issue of The Railway Magazine carried a small advertisement for the first of many appeals that would be made over the next two decades to save individual locomotives from the scrapyard.
It read: “43924 for Haworth! The Midland 4F Preservation Society requires £2500 for the purchase and restoration of this loco for use on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, Yorkshire. Donations please to . . .
“Note: If the fund does not reach the required target, the donations will be forwarded to the KWVR for purchase of other rolling stock.”
The society had been formed in the mid-1960s by enthusiasts who felt that a Midland 4F should be preserved. By 1965, there were only three genuine Midland 4Fs left working for BR – No. 43953 at Workington, No. 43967 at Buxton, and No. 43924.
Pioneering purchase
The group began talks with BR that moved so slowly that by the time the society’s request was tackled, all three of those 4Fs had been sold. With Nos. 43953 and 43967 cut up shortly afterwards, No. 43924 had also been sold for scrap but was still at Barry.
After various wrangles, including the negotiations of that awkward nosale clause, the locomotive purchase was agreed, a £1000 deposit was paid, and on September 10, 1968, it was towed from the scrapyard by diesels over two days via Hereford to Keighley.
Its final journey occurred a few days later, when it was hauled from Keighley by Manchester Ship Canal Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T No. 31 to its new home at Haworth.
Following the trail blazed by the 4F Society with its purchase, two more engines left Barry scrapyard the following year – SR Maunsell U class 2-6-0 No. 31618, which eventually ended up on the Bluebell Railway, and GWR 2-6-0 No. 5322, which moved to Caerphilly, later moving to the Great
Western Society’s Didcot Railway Centre.
Initial restoration of the 4F was quickly completed in 1970, when it was painted in post-1928 LMS livery and in 1970 it was the first ex-Barry locomotive to steam again.
In 1987, it became apparent that it needed a complete overhaul and not just routine repairs – and an £85,000 bill that the society could not afford, so it decided to sell No. 43924 to the KWVR, which returned it to service after a thorough overhaul in 2011. It has been a reliable performer ever since.
Film star
No. 43924 will star in the forthcoming movie The Railway Children Return, filmed last summer and set for release this summer. It has also featured in other films, including Testament of Youth and Swallows & Amazons.
The railway plans to display the 4F in Oxenhope Exhibition Shed. There are currently no plans to give it a fast-track overhaul; the gap between its last two 10-year boiler tickets was 23 years.