RUST IN PEACE
As your train departs from Grosmont, look to the left, and you might be able to cop Southern Railway ‘S15’ No. 841. If, that is, the vegetation hasn’t grown up enough to completely obscure it. Barely recognisable as one of Richard Maunsell’s magnificent heavy freight 4-6-0s, it is hard to believe that this rusting chunk of steel was one of the earliest stars of the main line steam scene. But under the accepted convention that the frames form a locomotive’s identity, that was indeed the case. It even achieved a further modicum of fame as a ‘namer’, as it was given the identity of ‘Greene King’ after the East Anglian brewer sponsored its move in September 1972 from Barry to Chappel & Wakes Colne, where it was restored two years later. They got the publicity exposure they wanted, for the ‘S15’ took part in the ‘Stockton & Darlington 150’ cavalcade at Shildon in 1975, and the following year it became the first preserved steam locomotive to operate on the main line in East Anglia before moving to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in 1978. So how did this minor preservation celebrity end up as a bare set of frames in the weeds? Although the Essex Locomotive Society selected it from Barry because its boiler was in good condition, the bottom end proved a headache because the frames were twisted. As a result, No. 841 last steamed – at least in that identity – at the end of the 1994 season, and yet the majority of it is still in active service. The frame problem had prompted the ELS to acquire the bottom half of classmate No. 825, whose boiler had been sold separately to the Urie Locomotive Society as a spare for its No. 506. Confused? You will be… During its next overhaul, from 1998 to 2003, the ELS ‘mixed and matched’ the best parts from the engines – No. 841’s good boiler, plus its bogie, most of its rods and motion, axleboxes, brake gear and other fittings were grafted onto the frames and driving wheels of No. 825. But under that convention of the frames determining identity, the resulting engine was now No. 825 – and No. 841, such as it still was, would be laid aside. The hybrid No. 825 is set to return to steam on the ‘Moors’ this year following another heavy general overhaul, but will No. 841 ever steam again in its ‘own right’? It seems doubtful. Its original driving wheels have had their tyres and crankpins turned and have been put into store as spares; No. 825’s original bogie is still around; and that spare ‘S15’ boiler exists in the Urie collection at the Mid-Hants Railway, so perhaps in theory it could be rebuilt. But with only a handful of volunteers left, No. 825 to maintain and a third ‘S15’ (No. 830) acquired from the Maunsell Locomotive Society in 2000, the ELS is unlikely to use these bent and cracked frames again, confirms director William Parrish. This odd outcast is now one of preservation’s ‘lost’ engines and yet, in a very real sense, it lives on. It is proof that we might not be able to save and restore absolutely everything – but at the same time, that thanks to the engineering skill and resourcefulness of the steam railway industry, what we do restore will usually be put to the best possible use.