staiNmore survivor
Changing fortunes for the unique ‘J21’
All of our cherished locomotives are very lucky to have escaped the cutter’s torch and survived into preservation - but some are even luckier than others. Take North Eastern Railway ‘J21’ 0-6-0 No. 65033. This remarkable machine has evaded the scrapman twice; the first time nearly 80 years ago, and the second time in the midst of the mass steam disposals of the 1960s - thanks to one determined preservationist who was prepared to risk his job to save it. Having led such a fascinating life, to say nothing of being the last remaining example of its class, and a veteran of the celebrated Stainmore Route, one might reasonably expect it to have become one of the most venerated locomotives in the movement. But you’d only be correct up to a point. For most of its post-BR life, the little Worsdell 0-6-0 has led that nebulous type of existence that earns a locomotive the unenviable title of ‘one of preservation’s forgotten machines’, with only brief periods in the limelight to offset long stretches on static display, or as a forlorn-looking hulk. Not that this is for lack of trying - but all valiant efforts to give the engine a brighter future with a fire in its belly have so far come to nothing. Happily, that could be about to change. No. 65033’s new custodians, the Locomotive Conservation & Learning Trust (LCLT), hope to net nearly £1 million of Heritage Lottery funding for this most worthy of railway causes - meaning the ‘J21’ could return to steam within two years.
Northern soul
If the money is forthcoming for its ‘Cumbrian Victorian Locomotive Experience’, it will kick-start a preservation scheme that has it all; a unique locomotive working for the first time in over 30 years, on a restored section of the railway with which its class became synonymous, and surrounded by all the authentic trimmings. The bleak, rugged Stainmore Route, which forged its way across the Pennines to link County Durham with Cumbria, is a northern equivalent of the Somerset & Dorset - a beautiful and charismatic railway that, even more than 50 years after its passing, is still remembered with affection by enthusiasts, former staff and local residents alike. And while they weren’t designed specifically for the line, the ‘J21s’ were Stainmore’s ‘7Fs’ - the engines that made it their own. For over 60 years, they were its staple workhorses, toiling their way over its punishing gradients with the iron ore, coal and coke needed to feed the industries on opposite sides of the country.
Only the arrival of the BR Standards in the early 1950s ousted them from this work - but the class did not finally bid farewell to Stainmore until 1960, and famously, it was No. 65033 that did the honours. On May 7 that year, it hauled the Railway Correspondence & Travel Society/ Stockton & Darlington Locomotive Society ‘J21 Railtour’ from Darlington to Carlisle and back, during which the game little machine not only conquered the 1,370-foot Stainmore Summit for the last time in both directions, but took on the climb to Shap without the help of a banker. Almost 60 more years on, the Stainmore Route and its famous Belah Viaduct are long gone - but at Kirkby Stephen East a small piece of it is being brought back to life and, against all the odds, No. 65033 still exists. The LCLT’s plan is to bring the two together, in a unique combination of preservation, re-creation and education.
Pre-Grouping atmosphere
Although Kirkby Stephen East has only a 600-yard running line at present, and any further extensions will only take place as and when further sections of trackbed can be acquired, “the focus is on the immersive environment” as LCLT Chairman Toby Watkins puts it - creating the best possible cameo of NER days. Having already supported the ‘Stainmore 150’ celebrations in August 2011, the Heritage Lottery Fund has since injected further cash into the Kirkby Stephen centre, with a grant of £10,000 towards its ‘World of Water’ project to erect an original NER water tank and crane - both of which are now installed and just a few weeks from commissioning. Since then, the Stainmore Railway Company has also acquired a 50-foot NER turntable from Darlington, of exactly the same type that was once situated at Kirkby Stephen East shed. Plans are also afoot to rebuild both of the station’s signal boxes - the original 1861 Stockton & Darlington Railway example, and the 1862 Junction box that replaced it and to erect full NER signalling for them to control. “We’re not just looking at the ‘J21’ in isolation,” says Toby. “With 2-4-0 No. 910 on loan from the National Collection, and several other NER items, everything’s there to take you back in time.” Having been the last ‘J21’ to run over the Stainmore line, No. 65033 would therefore reprise the class’ presence there six decades on - and would be serviced using all the historically correct infrastructure. Preservation doesn’t get much more authentic than this. But the LCLT’s vision goes far beyond that - having brought the ‘J21’ back to life, it also aims to give it a secure future. In order to make sure that it’s in tip-top condition, a great deal of money will have to be spent on the ‘J21’ for this first restoration. Of the £951,900 HLF bid, £680,000 would be earmarked for the locomotive itself, with a 10% contingency to cover the inevitable unknown quantities of the boiler overhaul. Although initial inspection has shown that a complete new boiler will not be needed, as was feared, it’s still possible that the copper firebox will have to be replaced. Explains Toby: “Short of somebody giving us half a million pounds, the HLF bid is the only possible funding stream that could give it that initial leg-up - but after that, the aim is to keep it sustainable. “Our business plan was originally to use it as much as possible to earn its keep - but now we’ll be looking to do the best possible restoration job on it, and then use it sparingly to ensure that it’s still in good condition at the next ‘tenyearly’ overhaul. That way, it might not have earned so much, but it won’t need as much spending on it either.”
Rather like another valuable pre-Grouping relic that returned to steam in recent years - LNWR ‘Coal Tank’ 0-6-2T No. 1054 - No. 65033 “will be well cared for,” says Toby: “There’s no limit set in stone - but we’re thinking in terms of two or three visits elsewhere each year, with a member of the LCLT to accompany it. “It won’t be able to pull very heavy loads, so it’s best used as an interesting visitor for galas.” The plan is to restore the engine to MT276 standard, although fitting it with the electronic equipment needed for main line operation is not on the cards. So it won’t be retracing its steps over Shap - but it could certainly follow in the footsteps of its classmates. That’s because the versatile ‘J21s’ ranged far and wide across the NER system - indeed, there were only five sheds on the company’s network that never had an example on their books - and some were even sent to East Anglia in the 1930s, while Great Eastern ‘E4’ 2-4-0s headed in the opposite direction for trials over Stainmore. Northallerton and Alnmouth sheds both had ‘J21s’ allocated, so the Wensleydale and Aln Valley Railways would be appropriate destinations for No. 65033 in the future, for instance. Two other preserved lines where it would be right at home are the Derwent Valley Light Railway - where members of the class appeared regularly with passenger, freight and latterly railtour workings - and the Weardale Railway, where No. 65078 was in action on the last day of passenger services on June 27 1953. So in visiting other railways, No. 65033 would not only reach a wider audience, but would re-create some local history in the process. In that spirit of bringing the past back to life, the LCLT project encompasses the restoration of 1902-built NER bogie stores van No. 5523 (BR No. DE903004) as an exhibition vehicle and educational facility. £120,000 of the HLF bid is for this, while the rest is for the creation of two part-time educational posts, a busy events programme and a skills and volunteer development package, to help relate some of the amazing stories that this locomotive has to tell.
Back from the brink
Even by the standards of the LNER’s eclectic steam fleet, the ‘J21s’ were quite venerable machines, and withdrawals began as early as 1929, continuing throughout the 1930s. No. 5033, as it was then numbered, was almost among them… Along with seven other examples, it was laid aside for scrapping in November 1939 - but with world events suddenly creating an urgent need for motive power, all were reinstated within a month, giving the ‘J21’ the unusual accolade of having been ‘saved from scrapping by Hitler’. As well as that rather tenuous connection to the German dictator, the locomotive appears to have a much stronger link with Winston Churchill. On December 4 1942, it is reputed to have hauled Britain’s wartime Prime Minister on a visit to the army battle school at Barnard Castle. No. 65033’s historical significance was recognised when it was finally withdrawn in 1962, for it was initially earmarked
for inclusion in the National Collection, and accordingly placed in store at Darlington Works along with the only other remaining example, No. 65099. Says Toby: “My understanding is that No. 65099 was formally withdrawn on October 20 1961 with cracked frames - the records show that its boiler was removed at Darlington on September 19 1960 and subsequently the engine was not repaired. “The boiler on No. 65033 had, I believe, been condemned and at some point - presumably when the locomotive was still on the National Collection list - the boiler from No. 65099 was fitted to make one good engine out of the two. “I also understand that when the boiler swap was being undertaken, it was discovered that the cab on No. 65033 was not the original, being from one of the 651XX series. It will be interesting to see if there are further components from other members of the class on No. 65033.” Yet after all that chopping and changing, in an echo of the infamous scrapping of Highland Railway 4-4-0 Ben Alder, No. 65033 was taken off the British Transport Commission’s official preservation list - because it was no longer in original condition. As designed by Thomas Worsdell, it was a compound, following the principles of Prussian engineer August von Borries - but was rebuilt as a simple in 1908. The fitting of various boilers, both saturated and superheated, during its career also made it a quite different animal from what had emerged from Gateshead Works in 1889. It looked like the end for No. 65033, and indeed it would have suffered the same fate as its one remaining classmate - but others thought differently. Martyn Ashworth, the project’s Independent Engineering Advisor responsible for coordinating all the technical support, says: “It obviously had friends - the shedmaster had a soft spot for it and kept hiding it. “On one occasion, it was scheduled to go for scrap and the driver ‘forgot’ to marshal it into the train, taking a load of wagons instead!” Such small acts of subterfuge paved the way for a much bigger one by Dr Frank Atkinson CBE, founder of the Beamish Open AirMuseum - and the man who we ultimately have to thank for the ‘J21’s survival. When the locomotive was finally sold for scrap in June 1968, just four days before it was due to be towed away, he instead arranged for it to be squirrelled away at Consett steelworks until it could be secured for Beamish’s preserved microcosm of life in the North East. Says Beamish Transport Curator and LCLT Trustee Paul Jarman: “The story goes that Frank had the engine purchased and then spirited away, without actually paying for it. That came later when he was quizzed by Durham
Council, his employers, about a curious debt for the purchase of a steam locomotive.” The amount owing was the not insignificant sum, at the time, of £1,200 - about £19,000 in today’s money. “I don’t know if losing his job was on the cards - I never saw that in the files, but it became a bit of a folk tale here!”
On the sidelines
So, a pretty special locomotive, all in all - but for far too long now, it hasn’t always been treated like one. It has steamed in preservation, being moved to the Tanfield Railway in 1970 for restoration to working order, after which it became the prize exhibit at Beamish’s re-created NER station, starring in the official opening by Sir John Betjeman in 1976. But with its boiler in poor condition, it last ran on December 3 1983, and spent the next two decades as a static exhibit, its NER green paintwork steadily fading, cracking and peeling. Finally, in 2003, an appeal was launched to restore it to working order. Steam Railway did its bit, giving the locomotive a new coat of BR black paint for an historic meeting with ‘J15’ No. 65462. After that, the ‘J21’ went on to make an appearance at Doncaster Works’ 150th anniversary celebrations, before moving to the Flour Mill for overhaul. Sadly, this restoration plan never came to fruition - and nor would a ‘Plan B’ in which it would move to the North Norfolk Railway, only to end up dismantled in Weybourne yard as other members of the ‘Poppy Line’ fleet had to take priority in the workshops. Since then, the LCLT has applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund four times - and been turned down four times. But with the welcome news of a first-round pass and initial funding of £40,000 in 2014, the trust is hopeful that this time, the ‘J21’s ‘Cinderella’ existence will at last be over.
Homeward bound
Says Toby: “We want to tell the story of this locomotive through the lives of the people that it touched, and bring it back where it belongs - the proposed debut event at Kirkby Stephen in 2019 would be titled the ‘Coming Home’ gala.” Here’s hoping that the remarkable run of luck which helped the ‘J21’ cheat fate twice, but deserted it in more recent times, will return, and ensure that it gets the new lease of life that it so richly deserves.