CREWE’S FINAL FLING
BR’s last overhaul 50 years on
February marks 50 years since BR works staff at Crewe completed their final steam overhaul, on No. 70013. NICK BRODRICK reflects on the historic occasion in 1967, and the locomotive’s 17-year association with the town.
Thursday February 2 1967 was a seminal day in steam history; one of a dwindling number of symbolic dates as the Government’s Modernisation Plan blew its final icy blast over steam’s dying embers. Crewe Works had been working with injectors, steam pipes, clack valves and washout plugs for 124 years, but the tools and machines that accomplished those tasks fell silent as British Rail finally sentenced the 19th-century technology to death. Work ceremoniously stopped as Crewe rolled its final coal-fired locomotive out of its doors, and BR steam on the 4ft 8½in would be gone just 18 months later. The locomotive in question was No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell - and so it became the last standard gauge ‘steamer’ in capital stock to be overhauled by British Rail. History had come full circle for the shiny Riddles ‘Britannia’ 4-6-2, which had originally hatched from the former LNWR works 15 years and nine months previously. Unlike its outshopping in May 1951, when there was no pomp or ceremony, the events of February 1967 were quite different.
New Model Railway
By 1967, most locomotives had been turned out in patchedup condition - and the last ‘Brits’ were even presented in service in unflattering plain green - some carrying tin name and numberplates as last vestiges of pride. However, ‘Cromwell’ was given the same lavish treatment as its preserved counterparts with which it shared the paint shop - LNER ‘A4’ No. 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley and BR ‘9F’ No. 92220 Evening Star - and bore fully lined green livery, just as it had for its entire career. And so Oliver Cromwell finally got the ex-works portraits it never enjoyed when new, while team photographs were taken of the staff, and the media were invited to record the sombre occasion. Crewe’s mayor, Herbert P. Vernon (who was also head shunter for BR at Crewe), was at the regulator of Oliver Cromwell as it chimed into daylight for one last time. It was driven under the supervision of driver Charles Porteus and fireman Neil Cadman. Even the brass nameplates were returned to the ‘7MT’; although it is unclear whether these were the originals or spares. Even so, the plates were removed the very same day that No. 70013 was released to Crewe South shed for running-in. According to former Crewe Motive Power apprentice Allan C. Baker, the engine’s Heavy Casual repair could have actually been completed some weeks before, but its official release had been slowed in order to ensure that it was actually the last. “While I was not always in the erecting shop… I made it my business to have a poke around it most lunchtimes… There were all sorts of rumours floating around as 1966 wore on, as to which locomotive was to be the last one overhauled, with suggestions alternating between 60007 and 92220. “I think 60007 got knocked out of the running first as it was an Eastern Region engine, and privately owned to boot. While 92220 had some merit as the last steam locomotive built for BR, eventually a decision was made in favour of one built at Crewe, and ‘quite right too’, was the general opinion of my new workmates! “That being the case, a ‘Britannia’ was an obvious choice and, purely by chance, the last one to come into the shop was 70013. It was quite specifically held back with little or no work undertaken for weeks on end.”
Lucky break
That was just as well for the lucky locomotive, which may have otherwise struggled to win favour with preservationists on account of its controversial name. Had the unveiling not been carefully stage-managed, the honour might have gone to something like Vulcan Foundry ‘Black Five’ No. 45092, or North British ‘Dub Dee’ No. 90243, which were turned out in the week ending January 7, as one of a batch of six that month; or of course those Doncaster or Swindon rivals. However, the works’ last ‘Brit’ was deliberately held inside Ten Shop until January 19, by which time the regional rivals had been dispatched for cosmetic attention. The special trio of Nos. 60007, 92220 and 70013 became the first steam engines to use Crewe’s new paint shop - the former spring shop - alongside their nemesis, the Type 4 diesel. Previously, such tasks had been carried out in the main erecting shop. There is another theory for No. 70013’s selection… George Dow was instrumental in the naming of the class, and having been public relations chief for the LNER/Eastern Region until March 1949, he was at pains to ensure that some East Anglian region ‘Brits’ had representative local identity; and thus the Huntingdon-born, former Ely resident parliamentarian Oliver Cromwell was so honoured, in spite of his divisive history. “Dow may have had something to do with it as he was
A ‘Britannia’ was an obvious choice and, purely by chance, the last to come into the shop was 70013.
still Divisional Manager at Stoke at the time, and a big pal of J.J.C. Barker-Wyatt, the works manager,” adds Allan. ‘Cromwell’ had been under repair at Crewe since November 15 1966, and while there it had surrendered boiler No. 819 (originally fitted to No. 70018 Flying Dutchman) and received No. 982 from No. 70051 Firth of Forth (originally built for No. 70032 Tennyson). There is some contemporary evidence that ‘Cromwell’ was paired with a high-sided, 4,725-gallon tender for the light engine journey from Carlisle to Crewe, before being permanently united with tender No. 773 (ex-‘Golden Arrow’ engine No. 70014 Iron Duke). Regrettably, no photographic evidence has ever come to light of the event, and therefore no firm proof that it occurred. Classmate No. 70014 certainly did run with a larger BR1D tender, which is perhaps where such potential confusion stems from. During its time in works, No. 70013 was reallocated from Carlisle Upperby to its penultimate shed, Kingmoor. Allan recalls the arrangements leading up to and following the February 2 showpiece: “Unusually, the engine was in
Providing no serious maintenance problems crop up, 70013 should be in service for at least five years
steam outside Ten Shop for the ceremony, while engines were otherwise steamed on the vacuum pits, which were outside the Brass Finishing Shop, by the weighbridge. “The engine was also unusual in being driven out of the works all the way and facing the opposite way round to normal, so it could steam away smokebox-first after the ceremony. It had been to the South Shed the previous day to be turned. For repairs, engines always came on to the works smokebox first and they always left tender-first from the vacuum pits, with one engine pulling any others dead to the South Shed. Ex-works engines always went to the South Shed, even when 5A [Crewe North] was open, irrespective of their class. They would be steamed there and distributed as appropriate. Mixed traffic and passenger engines would then go to the North Shed for running-in.” After delivering the mayor to BR’s offices in Crewe, No. 70013 returned to Crewe South, by which time both nameplates had been taken down; and running-in trials began. At least for the first week, these took the form of parcels trains between Crewe and its home city, Carlisle, via Shap. ‘Blaze of glory’ Such was the optimism, in spite of the ‘last rites’ nature of the ceremony, that the Crewe Chronicle reported: “Providing no serious maintenance problems crop up, ‘O.C.’ number 70013 should be in service for at least five years.” No major problems did occur, yet the ‘7MT’ was withdrawn in the week ending August 17 1968, barely 18 months later. The Sentinel, the local daily, described the scenes as a
“blaze of glory”. Any lingering emotion was doused down by J.J.C. Barker‑Wyatt: “I am not one of those people who feels nostalgia about steam. It is true that there was a certain magnificence about the steam locomotive, but we have to meet the needs of a new age now and get on with the job. “The sooner we get rid of the ties with steam and other decadent forms of transport the sooner we will get on with it.” Sentiment didn’t even mean sanctuary for ‘Cromwell’, and it wasn’t until September 1967 that a chance meeting between Bressingham Gardens’ founder Alan Bloom and BR executive David Ward set the wheels of preservation in motion, in which No. 70013 would shunt beleaguered class pioneer No. 70000 Britannia out of the reckoning in early 1968 (SR392). The very last… No. 70013’s claim to being the last BR steam locomotive to have any kind of mechanical repair at Crewe Works was almost spoiled by ‘WD’ 2‑8‑0 No. 90281, which returned for repairs to a faulty regulator valve on February 23! Nevertheless, Oliver Cromwell’s place in history is still assured as the last of more than 100,000 engines to be overhauled in the Cheshire town; and in fact, it would return to the works on two further occasions. The ‘Pacific’ came back for one last paint touch‑in and spruce‑up as its exploits on the end of steam specials loomed, as Allan C. Baker recalls: “It came off the works on June 19 1968 and went onto the South Shed where it was lit up. I was out of my time by then and working at the Diesel Shed when the foreman sent me and a mate to the South Shed, as the steam raiser could not get the live steam injector to work. I took the cones out, gave them a good clearing and it worked perfectly. It left light engine the following day at 10am to, I assume, either Lostock Hall or Carnforth ‑ with Crewe men.” But even that was not the end of the story. As revealed in SR303 in November 2004, No. 70013 arrived at Crewe again on July 15 1968, to have its front bufferbeam straightened after a rough shunt. By this time, steam was officially banned on the West Coast Main Line south of Preston. After its end of steam exploits, it would not be until March 19 2010 that ‘Cromwell’ would grace Crewe’s rails again; the date it returned to Shap for the first time since the 1960s. The 4‑6‑2 has never returned to the exact location of its creation, which survives under the auspices of Bombardier. Had the first attempt to re‑steam No. 70013 in 1993 succeeded, it would have been restored in the Works, but in the end it was the Great Central Railway that became its new home when Steam Railway readers backed an historic project in 2004. Yet, whenever Oliver Cromwell passes Crewe, its driver or fireman will always give its deep, melodic whistle a melancholy blast in tribute to the great railway town and its workforce.