‘CASTLE’ OWNER - AGED 33
…33-year-old JON JONES-PRATT tells DAVID WILCOCK why he bought the ex-Barry ‘Castle’ that nobody wanted.
The enthusiast world had more or less given up hope of ever seeing No. 7027 Thornbury Castle steam again, when out of the blue last July, vintage transport enthusiast Jon JonesPratt announced to the world that he had bought the former Laira, Old Oak Common and Worcester ‘Castle’ from Pete Waterman - and would have it running again “in six years”. Instant joy, flavoured perhaps by a small dollop of scepticism, ignited in the hearts of Swindon disciples who have long prayed that the derelict ‘Castle’ would find a redeemer. For more than 50 years, ‘Thornbury’ has languished in sidings at Reading, Barry, Tyseley, Crewe, and at Peak Rail’s Rowsley railhead, and been the victim of at least two failed restoration attempts. Perhaps few will remember the first initiative to restore ‘Thornbury’ by Birmingham Railway Museum Chief Engineer Jim Kent and his gang of volunteers after the engine arrived from Barry scrapyard in August 1972. The project was making steady headway until the museum ran into financial difficulties in the early 1980s. Many, however, will remember the blaze of enthusiasm that accompanied Pete Waterman’s purchase of No. 7027 from Tyseley in October 1994, and his forecast that he’d have ‘Thornbury’ running again “in two to three years.” But that bold ambition withered on the vine too, despite eager, hands-on involvement by volunteers at Crewe Heritage Centre, including several ex-BR enginemen. More than two decades later, in December 2015, Waterman finally capitulated, conceding that ‘Thornbury’ wasn’t going to steam on his watch. But he pledged to sell the engine at a knockdown price to anyone prepared to make “an honest, heartfelt and passionate commitment” to restoring the locomotive.
Pete actually did a lot of work all the motion is wrapped up and has been ready to go on for some time.
Months passed without a peep; the offer seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Could the fiery core of steam locomotive restoration by passionate enthusiasts - which had driven railway preservation for half a century - really now be dead? Once upon a time, locomotive groups and well-to-do individuals would have been climbing over one another to be first in the queue to snap up a smartly priced ‘Castle’. One could almost hear the sigh of relief from a nation’s steam enthusiasts when Jon Jones-Pratt - a ‘youngster’ of 32 in the steam preservation game, but the man behind the 2011 revival of the Crosville bus company at Weston-super-Mare of which he is MD, revealed that after an 18-month discussion with Pete Waterman, he was the new owner of No. 7027. ‘Thornbury’ would get a third chance! But who is Jon Jones-Pratt, now 33, and how able is he to breathe life back into a basket case which hasn’t turned a wheel in anger since its last fire was dropped at Reading shed in the autumn of 1963? Far from being the ‘wealthy bus freak who has turned to railways’ - a picture which some reports have created - Jon’s childhood and teenage years were a veritable apprenticeship in the railway arts. In short trousers days he learned to drive 5in gauge miniature steam locomotives, and toured all over the South West and South Wales with his signalling aficionado dad Chris - the West Somerset Railway’s Chief Signalling Inspector - visiting signal boxes and regularly being allowed to operate them under supervision. “I virtually grew up in Blue Anchor signal box,” asserts Jon - a claim only trumped by the fact that dad Chris
built a full-size replica of Hewish Crossing signal box (on the Bristol-Exeter main line) in the garden of their home in Weston-super-Mare, and Jon would frequently exchange bell codes with his father from his model railway layout in the garden shed. For eight consecutive years during the school summer holidays, Jon was also the sole steam driver on the 7¼in gauge Weston-super-Mare Miniature Railway (closed in 2012), clocking up hundreds of miles on the resident 0-4-2 Petra, and by the time he was 18, he’d already been a junior volunteer on the West Somerset Railway for ten years. Even today, he signs on as a locomotive fireman on the ‘Whizzer’ for a couple of footplate turns each month; previous to that, he was a fireman on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway at Toddington for three years. To balance the picture, he drove his first bus at the age of ten, and bought it at the age of 16. Some CV! I caught up with Jon at Crosville’s Weston bus depot, where ‘Thornbury’ awaits a move to Tyseley in March - and learned at first hand the story behind his latest acquisition. DW: The most obvious question first: what possessed you to buy the dilapidated hulk that is Thornbury Castle, which seemingly no-one else wanted? JJ-P: It’s a crazy idea to buy it, but I think I am probably pretty crazy. Let me first explain what some people perhaps don’t know - that I already have a Great Western 4-6-0 in the shape of Kinlet Hall. I got involved as a volunteer and shareholder with the Kinlet Hall group more than three years ago, but to cut the story short, when ‘Kinlet’ arrived at a bit of a financial crossroads last year and needed urgent firebox repairs, I ended up buying out my fellow shareholders. If I hadn’t put the money into it, it would have ended up in a museum or a headshunt somewhere, a bit like Dumbleton Hall has, and I wasn’t prepared to let that happen. Before all this came to a head though, I had been talking to Tyseley Loco Works Chief Engineer Bob Meanley, and declared to him in a telephone conversation one evening that I fancied doing something else as well. He replied: “Ah - I know the engine for you” - and he pointed me in the direction of Thornbury Castle, and Pete Waterman. It’s surprising how you can get so attached to something that you haven’t even seen, and suddenly feel an urge to do it, but ‘Thornbury’ was a local engine with a local [Bristol area] name, a great history and a lot of fans. Above all, she was a ‘Castle’, which to me is the top pedigree in Western Region steam, and unique in having a three-row superheater and single chimney. I was in no doubt that she would cause a stir when she turned a wheel again. I thought the old girl had a lot going for her, and I quickly DW: How aware were you of the existence of ‘Thornbury’ before Bob Meanley told you that it was ‘the one to go for’? JJ-P: Oh, I knew all about her. Father had often spoken about her. He knew that I liked her, and said jokingly once: “You’ll end up buying that Thornbury Castle!” I thought it was a shame the way she was just sitting there at Crewe, but I know Pete’s got a busy life - I get that - and nobody can do it all. The important thing is, he saved it, and now I can move it forward. People have already written to me suggesting I make a
hybrid out of it - a ‘Saint’ or a ‘Star’ - it actually has the inside motion from a ‘Star’ on it now - but I keep telling them I only want it as a ‘Castle’. I want her back as she was. She’s ‘Thornbury’, she’s a local engine, and when she’s sat in steam at Temple Meads a few years from now, that’s going to be something pretty special. DW: Pete Waterman said he’d let ‘Thornbury’ go for a knockdown price if the person buying it was the right person; someone who wasn’t going to just put it on static display somewhere, or just seek to get a cheap or below market-price engine for themselves. Did that happen? Was it what you’d call a knock-down price? JJ-P: Out of respect for Pete, I won’t say what I paid for it, but a fair deal was done - a deal to support his plans going forward with his other engines. I was comfortable with what I paid, and I believe we’ve now got a great relationship and a strong friendship. The thing is, Pete loves the engine, and he knew the sort of future he wanted for it. He wanted to make sure ‘Thornbury’ was going to the right home. We spoke nearly every other night during the 18 months we were discussing the sale and its future, and we still speak and exchange texts. DW: Was there a sticking point? Eighteen months is a long time to be talking - one imagines that your negotiations weren’t all smooth going. JJ-P: Well, buying it was really the easy bit. The thing is, if you’re about to take on a major main line engine restoration, you have to question yourself, because you’re making a lifestyle commitment. It was never going to be straightforward. Then there was the question of locating all the removed parts of a locomotive which had been dismantled for some time. Where were they all? Pete was sure they were all there, and he spent time with me so I could make notes, but I had to go and hunt them down. He had wagons full of locomotive parts and I had to go looking for them, both at Crewe and at Peak Rail. I was actually very pleased with the outcome though, because we ended up with more bits than I expected. The big thing was confirming that we’d got all the motion and we have - absolutely everything apart from the coupling rods - all the inside slide bars and motion, all the crossheads - everything. For me, that felt like a big achievement. DW: As it stands here now in its rusted, part-dismantled state with just the boiler, frames and driving wheels together and everything else stripped off, the engine does look a bit of a mess. Actually, how sound do you think it is? JJ-P: Published photos suggest that the engine is in quite a neglected state, but to be fair, it’s much less of a hospital case than many people think and, as I’ve said, in terms of parts, more complete than most seem to realise. It came with a brand new Hawksworth tender tank, as well as the Collett tender tank, and the absent bogie wheels are here at Weston now. We’ve got all the slide bars refurbished and wrapped up, all the springs for the engine have been refurbished - Pete actually did a lot of work - all the motion is wrapped up and has been ready to go on for some time. We’ve had the boiler inspector down here, and found that it’s got new monel stays [hard-wearing nickel-copper alloy] in it, the whole firebox and the copper sides are pretty much brand new, it’s had replacement three-quarter outer wrapper plates, and we’re happy with the backhead - that’ll go again. The firebox tubeplate needs some work, but we believe that will go again too. We’ll re-tube the boiler, and she will go. The words from the boiler inspector were: “I’ve never seen a firebox this good in 30 years.” DW: Nevertheless, you do still have a shopping list - you’ve said you need coupling rods. What else do you need? JJ-P: Cab fittings, new pipework, a few other bits and pieces. One thing I’d like to see restored to the engine are the original smokebox and brass cabside numberplates. I don’t know who has them, but I’ve been told they’re ‘around’ so I’d welcome a discussion with the owners. To have those back on the engine would be very satisfying. DW: You’ve said six years to restore Thornbury Castle. What’s your vision of how things will be in 2023? JJ-P: We want to see ‘Thornbury’ and ‘Kinlet’ working together over a five-year cycle, with the idea that there’s always at least one engine in traffic over that period - that’s the first objective. The idea of owning the two was that they’d both support one another, and meeting that aim means putting in a lot of hard work now, and having a sustainable plan that ensures both engines ‘wash their faces’. They’ll never make money of course - steam engines will always cost you money, but if they’re contributing to their costs, it helps. DW: What exactly are you and your own group of supporters going to be doing with ‘Thornbury’ at Westonsuper-Mare - and what is Tyseley doing? There have been conflicting versions of ‘who’s doing what’. JJ-P: We want to get the boiler up to Tyseley first of all. I did say we hoped to do the ‘bottom end’ (frames, wheels, cylinders and motion) here in Weston - and by that I mean de-rusting, cleaning and restoring parts, painting them and sending them up to Tyseley ready to go, but my vision on that being feasible is starting to change a little bit. What’s most important, regardless of who does what,
is that we achieve an Earl of Mount Edgcumbe standard of restoration, so it’s most likely now that she will go lock, stock and barrel up to Tyseley to be worked on. The close relationship we have with Tyseley allows us to discuss who does what. It’s important to ensure we do it right. Obviously, we want to run on the main line, so there are issues of documentation from the outset. We obviously don’t want to do any work here that will put us back later on. We’ve got to accept that what we have here is a bus garage, not a locomotive works. My thoughts now are, we’ll probably end up restoring the tender here. We’re going to be doing Kinlet Hall’s tender here this year, starting with ultrasonic testing of the frames to make sure there are no cracks. DW: Last summer, when you bought ÔThornburyÕ, Steam Railway carried your appeal for people to come on board and take an active role in helping to get No. 7027 back into one piece. What response did you get from that? JJ-P: We had a lot of interest - I think we’ve got 14 names - and we’ve started the working parties on Saturdays already, with a lot of energy going into ‘Kinlet’s’ tender. The beauty is they can come and get involved with our vintage road vehicles as well. It’s not just about the railway engines - it’s a collaborative approach to looking after the whole of the Crosville vintage transport collection, which, including ‘Lizzie’, our Sentinel steam bus, and Sonsie Quine, our Clayton road locomotive, runs to 19 items. There’s no shortage of work to do. DW: You were looking, though, not just for willing hands, but also for skilled engineers with proven locomotive or railway experience, and a track record. Have you managed to recruit any? JJ-P: We’ve got to spend some time on meeting these people. There’s an open door for welcoming conversation, but there isn’t an open door for people to just come in and start working on the engines - we have to go through some careful vetting. It’s all very well having a relaxed approach, but there are health and safety considerations, and you have to induct the right people before you assign them. There are people out there who can contribute an awful lot, but there are others who can perhaps be a hindrance, and we have to make the right choices. Restoring ‘Thornbury’ is really a businesslike transaction - that’s the way modern-day industry works. You can’t be too relaxed, and I’m accountable. Remember, we’re talking about putting up a support crew for running main line too, and that side of things is very carefully regulated. I’m the chairman of JJP Holdings (South West) and have overall responsibility for everything - so we have a duty of care to ensure the people around us have the right experience and sufficient competence. DW: Have you forecast a budget for what ÔThornburyÕ is going to cost you to restore? JJ-P: Yes - £1 million, based on fixed costs which Tyseley Works Manager Alistair Meanley and I have worked out. DW: And Kinlet Hall? JJ-P: £180,000, or thereabouts. Hopefully less. DW: These are not inconsequential sums. YouÕre able to do this comfortably? JJ-P: I’m very open about this. Thornbury Castle has been saved. We’ve got her under cover, in a great environment now, but she has to take her place, and progress has to be in relation to when we’re able to afford the income streams. Fortunately we’ve got a very, very big contract which I’ve been working on for eight years - providing the buses to take construction workers to the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station near Bridgwater - thank God Theresa May gave it the green light. We’re running 40 vehicles on that contract already, and that operation will go up to 200+ vehicles, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and moving 8,500 people daily. Without this sort of thing going on, you would never sit down and write out a business plan for Thornbury Castle. You’d just never do it - but I’ve got the love, I’ve got the drive, and I’ve got the passion, and it’s what keeps me ticking, and motivates me to get up in the morning to do what we do. ‘Thornbury’ can be seen as a completely crazy idea - a waste of a million pounds and so on, but at the end of it, look at what we’re going to get; look at the asset that we’ll have. This is a pioneering country, and we’ve got some great
What’s most important, regardless of who does what, is that we achieve an Earl of Mount Edgcumbe standard of restoration.
people who have done some fantastic things. Look at how many preserved railways we have. Look at how many preserved engines are running. So yeah, I want to do it. DW: Do ‘Thornbury’ and ‘Kinlet’ satisfy the inner man? JJ-P: Well, you can go on and on, and there are some beautiful engines out there. It would be fantastic to own more, but like I say, buying them is the easy bit. Could we take on another engine project now? No. We’d be crackers to do that. You never know what’s around the corner, but right now we’re at the limit of what we can do. What the future holds I don’t know, but I need to be committed to the two locomotives we’ve got and the rest of the vintage transport collection - but particularly the two engines. We need to get them running, get Kinlet Hall back earning again, and get ‘Thornbury’ onto the target path that helps Tyseley with its plans for the main line. We’ve got directors and a good management team, but they’re not here to just allow me to go and play with the collection all the time. But if we keep pushing the business and keep evolving, we’ll be able to protect the ‘old girls’ - and that’s important. DW: You wear your heart on your sleeve, don’t you? Would you say you are the passionate, committed enthusiast that Pete Waterman was looking for? JJ-P: Yes, I do care. When we were putting ‘Kinlet’ to bed for the last time before overhaul I had tears running down my face. I get wrapped up in the emotion of it all. You don’t realise the hold they have on you, these engines. I can’t really explain it - I just feel so privileged to be doing what we’re doing with them. It’s a fantastic hobby and I’ve made some great friends, but sometimes you just need to pinch yourself to make sure it’s all real, because it feels outof-this-world. And it’s exciting because we’re entering a great new chapter now on the locomotive engineering side, where everyone is so much more experienced than they once were. Barry scrapyard closed around 1990 - but this is like going to Barry and pulling her out of the scrapyard - something that nobody has been able to do for more than 25 years, so we’re making history. Who would ever think that in 2017, there would be a chance to get involved with the restoration of a ‘Castle’? That’s the fun bit that I’m looking forward to with ‘Thornbury’. Even picking her up at Peak Rail and bringing her down to Weston was a lot of fun. We caused traffic gridlock in Matlock, and then she got stuck on the low-loader when we got her back here and we couldn’t get her off. This will all be part of a future telling of the story to the kids of tomorrow. We just want to document everything properly, and photograph it, and mark the moment so we’ve got it recorded for posterity. I got a professional photographer to come over and take photographs of ‘Kinlet’ on her last day, so now I’ve got a record of my mother and father with the engine, and a few weeks back I took my three-year-old daughter Ellie down to see ‘Gertie’ - that’s our ‘pet name’ for Kinlet Hall - and I took photos of her in the cab. Ellie will get all this one day - it will all be left to her. She will probably think her father was mad - but I hope she’ll remember that we had some fun. When I was young I thought my dad was mad too, but he says I’m far worse than he ever was! But I’ve got some good memories, helped by the fact that dad always took photographs of the things we did. At Christmas in 2015 he gave me an album and it goes right back to when I was born, tracing through so many of our railway experiences: me as a lad driving a 5in gauge model engine, driving Raveningham Hall at Toddington on my 18th birthday, driving a Class 33 diesel from Bishops Lydeard to Blue Anchor on my 21st birthday - and stopping at Washford for lunch in the pub. It’s all there, all documented - and priceless in the memories that it holds.