70013: DISMANTLING STARTS IN LOUGHBOROUGH WORKSHOP
National Railway Museum remains committed to running Oliver Cromwell on the main line as paperwork for custodianship is finalised.
Dismantling work has commenced on ‘Britannia’ Oliver Cromwell at the Great Central Railway.
Stripping of the Riddles ‘7MT’ began in March in the locomotive workshop at Loughborough.
When Steam Railway put it to the NRM on April 11 that work had started on No. 70013, the museum said that it was unaware of any overhaul having started and that a custodian had yet to be formally appointed.
It said: “Work hasn’t started yet – we haven’t received a signed loan agreement from the Great Central Railway. As such, we can’t really answer [any other] questions until this agreement has been finalised.”
The 1951-built ‘Pacific’ requires a boiler overhaul, including a re-tube, in order to be recertified for preserved and main line use, something which its owner, the National Railway Museum, has proposed.
On April 12, the day that the final pages of this issue went to press, the spokesman re-stated: “We haven’t received any reports of work taking place at the GCR.”
During an interview conducted with the magazine on March 20, the museum’s Assistant Director and Head Curator Andrew McLean told the magazine that an agreement for the GCR to take on the overhaul was expected “very soon indeed”.
A GCR spokesman told Steam Railway on April 12: “GCR has draft
agreements from the NRM and we expect these to be back with the NRM in the next two weeks… Until the contract is finalised and we agree a communications plan with the NRM we cannot give any further information.”
Oliver Cromwell was previously in the custodianship of the 5305 Locomotive Association, which worked in collaboration with the GCR as an operating partner and engineering base provider. The agreement with the volunteer group expired on December 31, coinciding with the expiry of the locomotive’s boiler certificate and a day of hauling trains over the unique double-track of the GCR.
‘Cromwell’ hauled its last main line charter on March 3 2018, between London and the NRM’s home city, York.
However, the GCR stated that the “5305 Locomotive Association is closely involved with our restoration plan and is happy with its role within it”.
The ‘Pacific’ was restored to operation in 2008 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the end of BR steam, in which No. 70013 played a key role, notably by taking charge of the Manchester-Carlisle leg of the August 11 1968 ‘Fifteen Guinea Special’.
It spent the first 36 years of its preservation career based at Bressingham Steam Museum and Gardens, where it gave footplate rides to visitors until 1988.
●● The interview, NRM in action, is featured on pages 62-70.