CAERPHILLY CASTLE
It’s not on anyone’s agenda, but just how thorough was Swindon Works’ restoration of the pioneer Collett 4-6-0 back in 1960?
Right down to the fine detail, the pioneer Collett ‘Castle’ 4-6-0 No. 4073 is an immaculate and lasting memorial to the craftsmanship of the men of Swindon Works. Why has there never been a campaign to return Caerphilly Castle to steam? In truth, no-one wants it to happen. When there are seven other members of the class capable of main line running, what’s the point of interfering with a 94-year-old engine that looks as fresh as the day it was built? ‘Caerphilly’ has now been out of service for almost six decades, long enough for people to forget that its restoration cost three times the original budget… prompting speculation that it was much more than just a paint job… Its custodian, STEAM - Museum of the Great Western Railway, has been unable to shed much light on what was done to Collett’s masterpiece. However, we’ve been given some clues by a former works employee who witnessed the overhaul at the end of 1960. It was during a chance encounter with Steam Railway’s then-news and features writer Tony Streeter, when No. 4073 arrived at the museum in Swindon at the end of 1999, that he revealed he knew quite a lot about what happened to ‘Caerphilly’ when it turned up at the works seven months after withdrawal from Cardiff Canton shed. It had a service life of 36 years and nine months, and was promised executive attention. The story goes that £3,500 had been allocated for its ‘cosmetic restoration’, but the works manager sanctioned the spending of more than £11,000. It was hardly surprising that he was hauled up before senior management to explain how he had spent so much public money, although he kept his job.
No expense spared
What we can presume is that No. 4073’s repair was so comprehensive that it is capable of being steamed; the boiler was not changed, but was it lifted? Or was the firebox re-stayed? And how good are its tyres? As the works employee remarked: “The works manager authorised a full overhaul with money no object, even though he knew full well the locomotive would never run again.” Naturally, the ‘Caerphilly’ you see at STEAM today comprises very little of the original engine. That’s thanks in no small part to the GWR’s rigid regime of standardisation of major components between most classes throughout the tenures of Churchward, Collett and Hawksworth, and also into BR days. Boilers, tenders - and sometimes even frames - were changed at regular intervals. Courtesy of Laurence Waters and the Great Western Trust at Didcot, keepers of the locomotive histories so painstakingly compiled by the late Bill Peto from works record cards, we have a good insight into the history of No. 4073 and its classmates. If you compare photographs of Caerphilly Castle when it was new with what you see today at STEAM, there’s one immediate noticeable difference - the shorter chimney. The boiler (the engine had no fewer than 13 changes during its lifetime) is also of a revised post-1932 design, which had received a substantial amount of revisions to the firebox and tube design. The engine’s current tender is also not the large-bodied Collett 4,000-gallon model with which it was withdrawn. This was swapped with standard Churchward 3,500-gallon tender No. 1855, the same type with which it first ran. The actual tender was no longer available, but the current tender’s plate carries its number - 2210 - to accentuate the deception. Weighing seven tons empty and 40 tons full, it came from a batch of 20 built in 1912/13 - a decade before the locomotive was built - and looks the same as that carried today by preserved ‘Star’ 4-6-0 No. 4003 Lode Star at York. Both (and there are others) are survivors of a series of 649 tenders built between 1905-26, which also ran behind ‘Saints’, ‘Manors’, ‘28XX’ 2-8-0s and ‘43XX’ 2-6-0s.
The works manager authorised a full overhaul with money no object, even though he knew full well the locomotive would never run again.
As an aside, Peto records that in 1948/49, No. 4073 ran with the original tender from No. 6000 King George V that accompanied it to the United States in 1927, but this was just one of 24 swaps that took place.
King of the ‘Castles’
Compared with some of its 170 production successors and ‘Star’ rebuilds that were wiped out by dieselisation, No. 4073 delivered good value to its masters by exceeding its design life of 30-35 years. Few were surprised when No. 4073 was earmarked for withdrawal in 1955 as life-expired. However, the engine was reprieved by BR Western Region and granted one last Heavy General overhaul, which took place at Swindon Works between August 1956 and January 1957. It made two more trips there at the end of 1958 for minor attention, and its final works visit was, most appropriately, to Caerphilly Works, in September 1959. It was a Cardiff Canton engine when time was finally called eight months later, with 1,910,730 miles to its credit. Intended to become part of the National Collection, No. 4073’s first home after restoration was in the Land Transport Gallery extension of the Science Museum in London, where it was taken on June 4 1961. Two days earlier, ‘Caerphilly’ had been formally handed over to Museum Director Sir David Follett at Paddington, with British Transport Commission Chairman Dr Richard Beeching presiding over the ceremony. Before its sad final farewell to the terminus, one last public appearance had been arranged at Paddington station, where it was propelled into the platforms by Class 08 diesel No. D4004 for the ceremony. Then it was taken back to the sidings at Park Royal for the engine and tender to be separately loaded onto two road transporters for the movement to South Kensington. A major reorganisation of relics resulted in the departure of No. 4073 for pastures new on September 22 1996. Three hundred yards of track had to be laid from a rear entrance so it could be winched onto a low-loader. The destination was a temporary new home at the Great Western Society’s headquarters at Didcot. The move took three days, as it first had to be taken to the rail-connected sidings of Medloyds at nearby Milton, with a final trip working movement on the Great Western Main Line for diesel-haulage to the preservation centre. It was on static display there for three years until its new home, the STEAM museum at Swindon, was completed. It arrived there on December 17 1999, and is now just a stone’s throw from its birthplace.