ONE HIT WONDERS, PART TWO
THOMAS BRIGHT concludes his round-up of the National Collection locomotives that worked for no more than one boiler ticket in preservation, and which are unlikely ever to steam again.
Special engines, short lived revivals
In the decade after the Stockton & Darlington Railway 150th anniversary celebrations, a huge array of National Collection locomotives returned to steam. Indeed, the 1975 Shildon cavalcade was the first time that Britain’s still-growing preservation movement really flexed its muscles and showed its potential, and the nascent National Railway Museum was at the forefront of the festivities.
With the likes of Ivatt ‘Atlantic’ Henry Oakley and LNWR ‘Improved Precedent’ Hardwicke recommissioned (rather than restored outright) specifically for the ‘S&D 150’ event, it was only natural that further locomotives should be similarly revived for ‘Rocket 150’ in 1980, commemorating the sesquicentennial of the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. On this occasion, however, the NRM really pushed the boat out, as the Midland ‘Spinner’, the Midland Compound, ‘4F’ No. 4027, Duchess of Hamilton, ‘Schools’ No. 925 Cheltenham and Evening Star were all reactivated for the occasion; many actually debuting at Rainhill.
There is one man whom enthusiasts must thank for this era-defining display of motive power – John Bellwood. In his role as the NRM’s chief mechanical engineer, a position he held from the museum’s inception until his retirement in April 1988 (only months before his
premature death from asbestosis later that year), he was responsible for returning to steam the majority of the engines covered in this and the previous edition of our ‘one hit wonder’ survey. Post-1980, there was only one occasion for which John Bellwood and the NRM would revive another one of their charges – the 50th anniversary of Mallard’s record-setting 126mph run in 1988. After that, the impetus to restore National Collection treasures has been almost exclusively as a result of private enterprise, with individuals, railways or groups approaching the NRM about undertaking the restoration of its exhibits.
This latter-day era of NRM restorations resulted in arguably less obvious engines, such as the ‘Q7’ and ‘Super D’, coming to the fore. Furthermore, with the NRM entertaining any future revival of Green Arrow solely on the premise that an external organisation comes forward with a fundraising and overhaul plan, it seems this is the only way forward for most of the small minority of engines earmarked for a potentially active future under the museum’s Operational Rail Vehicle Strategy.
In the concluding part of our look into the NRM’s ‘one hit wonders’, let’s explore the ones for which we did not have space in the previous instalment.