Restoration of 4-6-0 that lost identity to be commemorated 50 years on
THE owners of an ex-Barry preserved locomotive and the volunteers who helped restore the 4-6-0 exactly 50 years ago are to commemorate the golden jubilee with a trip on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, where the engine found a home after being saved.
Built at Eastleigh in July 1936, the SR Class S15 entered traffic as No. 841, was renumbered 30841 by BR on Nationalisation in 1948, and was withdrawn from the West London shed of Feltham (70B) in January 1964 and sold to Woodham Brothers.
After languishing at the scrapyard for eight years it was rescued by the Essex Locomotive Society in 1972 and relocated to the Stour Valley Railway Preservation Society at Chappel & Wakes Colne station, where its restoration started in September that year.
It was returned to steam in 1974 numbered 841 and named Greene King after the local brewery, took part the following year in the 150 cavalcade at Shildon in County Durham, and after a spell at the Nene Valley Railway moved in 1978 to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, where it operated for a number of years.
A long-term major overhaul began in 1994, resulting in the locomotive losing its identity. During the work the 4-6-0’s frames were found to be out of alignment, and the decision was made to utilise the frames from another Essex Locomotive Society S15, No. 30825, that was also at the NYMR and had already been partly cannibalised.
Traditionally, steam locomotives are numbered from their frames – rather like rebuilt classic cars are identified by their chassis number – and so when No. 30841 returned to service it carried No. 825, even though the boiler, tender, and many, if not most, other parts were from No. 30841, and it has stayed in that guise ever since.
In effect No. 30841 has been scrapped, with the original outof-alignment frames now being in undergrowth near the NYMR shed at Grosmont. Despite its demise, the shareholders and some of the surviving volunteers who worked on the 4-6-0 remember it with affection, hence the decision to commemorate on September 17 the start of its post-Barry restoration, almost exactly 50 years ago to the day.
Special headboard
Nigel Crisp, one of No. 30841’s Essex Locomotive Society shareholders, told Heritage Railway a carriage would be hired on a Grosmont-Pickering train that day, and he expected about 45 people with connections to the locomotive’s early days to be on board.
In a twist of fortune, the train will be headed by No. 825, which will carry a specially-commissioned Southern-style headboard bearing the legend: ‘Remembering those who worked on 841 50 years since leaving Barry.’
One of the passengers will be railway artist Malcolm Root, part of a group of volunteers who worked on No. 30841 when it arrived at Chappel & Wakes Colne station in September 1972.
In a small team that included his brother Richard and friend David Gomer, Malcolm, a fellow of the Guild of Railway Artists, was involved with painting, including the inside of the tender, the lining and lettering,
and other non-mechanical restoration.
“I lived, as I still do, at Halstead, only a few miles from Chappel, and as a railway enthusiast offered to help with the overhaul,” he said. “None of us had engineering knowledge but we pitched in and thoroughly enjoyed it.
“The idea of commemorating those days of 50 years ago, and remembering fellow volunteers and others who helped save the engine who have now passed away, is a marvellous gesture.
“I, my wife Meryl, Richard, and David, look forward to joining the train on September 17 and reliving what was a very happy time.”