TV star Swanscombe back in action at Fifefield site
‘PLAYSCHOOL Engine’Barclay 0-4-0ST No. 699 of 1691 Swanscombe has found a new home – and following a successful post-overhaul boiler test is now available for hire to heritage lines.
The oldest-surviving standard gauge Barclay in the world, Swanscombe was delivered to the Northfleet Coal & Ballast Co. in Kent in 1891, where it ran until 1921 when it was transferred to work in the quarries and wharves at West Thurrock in Essex.
However, the increasing loads were too much, and it was confined to shunting in the wharves until retirement and sale in 1965. It moved first to Skimpot Lane, Luton, for storage with other locomotives belonging to the London Railway Preservation Society. It finally arrived at the Buckinghmashire Railway Centre at Quainton Road in 1969 and stayed there for more than 50 years.
Television star
Swanscombe was steamed until the mid1970s and appeared on several occasions on BBC TV Playschool, becoming known as‘The Playschool Engine’. When its boiler certificate expired, it was shunted behind the shed and left outside for the next 20 years until her then owner, Neville Chamberlain, was given notice to remove it from the site.
After a change in ownership, work started in 1999 at Quainton Road on a major overhaul and restoration, which enabled it to run in 2002 and be driven by the Duke of Gloucester during his visit to formally open the relocated LNWR Oxford Rewley Road terminus.
In 2013 Swanscombe was repainted into Metropolitan Railway colours so it could masquerade as Brill No. 1 for the 150th anniversary of London Underground, and it has continued to run with the Met livery.
When work began on its 10-year overhaul in 2019, the boiler was sent away for necessary repair work, but due to Covid-19 its owners were not allowed to continue working at Quainton Road.
They were aware that High Speed 2 infrastructure works would be very close to Quainton’s Down Yard where Swanscombe was based – and when they discovered that it would not be possible to get locomotives in or out of that yard, it was decided that it should be moved before it became trapped. It was hoped that it could move to the Cholsey & Wallingford Railway for completion of the overhaul before agreeing a longer term location. Unfortunately, that heritage line was unable to take Swanscombe in its dismantled state.
‘Rescued’
However, former Steam Dreams owner David Buck offered Swanscombe a home on his private railway at Fifield, in Berkshire, and it moved there in January. There, Michael Patterson, who had been responsible for Swanscombe’s maintenance for several years, was able to complete reassembly so that it passed the final boiler tests in July and received its certificate.
Swanscombe has joined two other locomotives formerly based at Quainton Road – Aveling & Porter 0-4-0WTG No. 8880 of 1917 Sir Vincent
and Peckett 0-4-0ST No. 1756 of 1928 Hornpipe.
In early August, David held a fete for his local community, at which Swanscombe and Sir Vincent
performed faultlessly. Michael has been commended for the high standard of his work on both Swanscombe and Sir Vincent.