Unloved Handyman finds a home at Statfold
The future of seemingly unwanted 3ft gauge Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0ST ‘Handyman’ seems somewhat more assured with the news that the 1900-built locomotive has joined the collection of the Statfold Narrow Gauge Museum Trust.
Following a permanent transfer to the Trust by previous owner the Science Museum Group, on 2nd June the loco was transported by road from the National Railway Museum in York to the collection near Tamworth in Staffordshire.
Built for the Burton Ironstone Company, Handyman was employed in several East Midlands quarries, ending its working life at Scaldwell Quarry.
Withdrawn in 1961, the loco was then saved for preservation by Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway members Bob Harris, David Plant and Gerald Rainbow.
Stored for many years on a short length of 3ft gauge track at the W&LLR’s Cyfronydd station, Handyman later moved to the Welsh Highland Railway’s initial restoration base at Kinnerley in Shropshire and then to the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley, Derbyshire.
The three owners then decided to sell the loco in the hope of it being restored, and the National Railway Museum bought it in 2008, intending to use Handyman as the centrepiece of a proposed display on railway construction.
This project was later abandoned and NRM management decided that the industrial side of UK steam locomotives was already represented by the similar, although standard gauge, industrial locomotive ‘Bauxite’.
Handyman was not designated by the Railway Heritage Designation Advisory Board, so in June 2020 was one of 15 items from the NRM collection listed for transfer.
While the extent of interest in the loco was not revealed, it is known that one of the unsuccessful bidders was the Halesworth to Southwold Narrow Gauge Railway Society, which is working at one end of the former 3ft gauge Southwold Railway in Suffolk.
“This is a very positive development which will restart the restoration of Handyman, which given the amount of work required and the resources available, would not be a viable project for the National Railway
Museum,” said the NRM’s head curator Andrew McLean.
The loco was on display at Statfold’s ‘Trangkil 50’ Gala on 12th-13th June. “We are delighted to have Handyman at the Statfold Narrow Gauge Museum Trust,” said Trust spokesman Henry Noon.
“Not only does this loco add to our Hunslet and Hudswell Clarke theme but it also adds to the narrow-gauge story being told in our dedicated narrow-gauge museum, being our only 3ft gauge locomotive,” Henry added.
Handyman will now undergo thorough cosmetic restoration for display in the Statfold museum.