WHAT’S ON YOUR FREE UNSUNG HEROES DVD…

Unsung Heroes focuses on the less glamorous pre-Grouping classes which survived into the BR era.

A number of small tank engines enjoyed multiple roles on the railways of the 1950s. We see a late survivor of William Stroudley’s ‘D1’ 0-4-2Ts at work on the Whittingham Hospital Railway near Preston, followed by examples of the ‘E4’ 0-6-2Ts as first preserved on the Bluebell Railway, Captain Bill Smith’s ‘J52’ 0-6-0ST, and a trio of ex-SER ‘R1s’ taking a heavy boat train out of Folkestone Harbour.

LMS history is recalled by two Midland ‘Half-Cabs’ and an L&Y ‘Pug’ in industrial service. An LSWR Adams ‘B4’ 0-4-0T is seen working at Southampton Docks and, finally, we see two Beattie well tanks back in London on the suburban services for which they were designed.

Passenger tanks come to the fore as one of the legendary LBSCR ‘Terriers’ is seen on the Hayling Island line. Another LSWR antiquity is an Adams ‘Radial’ tank and, a younger Drummond ‘M7’, one of which is featured working at Lymington Pier, while an LBSCR ‘R1’ 0-4-4T is seen at East Grinstead.

In Scotland, a Caledonian 0-4-4T is seen in Glasgow, and an NER ‘G5’ appears on home metals before we go to ex-Midland lines to see a Johnson 0-4-4T. The L&Y used 2-4-2Ts and the GCR 4-4-2Ts, and each of these is featured, as is a GNR Ivatt ‘N1’ 0-6-2T. GCR 0-6-2Ts and GER ‘N7s’ follow, and then we see the GWR’s ‘Small Prairies’. Once again, the GCR features with its massive ‘A5’ class ‘Pacific’ tanks, and a glimpse of one of the LSWR’s ‘H16’ tanks on passenger work concludes this chapter.

Mixed traffic tender engines complete our survey, starting with the GNoSR’s ‘D40’ 4-4-0s. Then Churchward’s class of ‘43XX’ 2-6-0s appear. These were instrumental in the design and production of the final SECR designs by Richard Maunsell in the form of his class ‘N’ 2-6-0s, a number of which are seen on the Southern Region. These were known as ‘Woolworths’, as a large number were built at the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich following the First World War to fulfil government orders.