‘4MT’ MAKES EAST GRINSTEAD AFTER REBUILD
Youngest surviving BR ‘4MT’ 2-6-4T No. 80151 has returned to steam for a second stint of service on the Bluebell Railway, after an overhaul estimated at £500,000.
Following an initial steam test and first movements on June 20, the 1957 Brighton-built engine commenced running-in trials in early July, just after classmate No. 80072 had bowed out at the Llangollen Railway (see pages 30-31).
A test run on July 3 took No. 80151 to the Bluebell’s new northern terminus of East Grinstead, which was still nearly a year away from opening when the locomotive last steamed in May 2012, in the 11th year of its previous boiler certificate. This is believed to make it the first ‘4MT’ tank to reach East Grinstead since the early 1960s.
It had been moved up the overhaul queue at Sheffield Park after its owning group, the 80151 Locomotive Company Ltd,
contributed a “significant fivefigure sum”.
Explained company chairman Nick Proud: “Under the agreement, the railway has paid for most of the overhaul – but some of our members are getting old and we wanted to see it run again sooner rather than later.
“We’ve always raised money from our own shareholders – we didn’t want to be beholden to the generosity of others.”
The engine originally moved to the Sussex line in 1998, having been at Chappel & Wakes Colne since it left Barry scrapyard in 1975. The company paid “the lion’s share” of that £90,000100,000 restoration, said Mr Proud, but the latest overhaul has cost “significantly more – probably £½ million”.
“Two phrases you never hear are ‘well, that locomotive didn’t need as much work as we thought’ and ‘that overhaul was cheaper than we expected’.”
“A fantastic amount of work”
has been done on the boiler, he continued, including specialist welding to the firebox by Hythe Marine Services of Southampton, and repairs to a cracked superheater header by Cast Iron Welding Services of Coalville.
“The boiler wasn’t initially anticipated as a major job, but the railway decided to complete additional work to ensure future reliability.”
“The welding cost a lot, but it was worth every penny because Hythe did a damn good job.”
Although new tyres were needed, the bottom half “was nothing too out of the ordinary” except for the frame stretcher beneath the cab, which had to be replaced. “It was corroded because under there it doesn’t get oily,” in contrast to the front end, where “the accumulated grease and oil was burnt onto the frames around the cylinders – we tried all sorts of ways to clean it off, but the final solution was ordinary domestic oven cleaner!”
The locomotive is subject to a long-term agreement, and is unlikely to venture elsewhere, said Mr Proud: “Any hire has to be mutually agreed between us and the Bluebell – but we’re not keen on putting it on lowloaders, because that puts it under stresses that it was never designed to take.
“Industrials can cope better because they were designed for rough track, but for something with longer and more rigid frames like a 2-6-4T, you’re asking for trouble – when it gets to the top of the ramp, all the weight goes onto the driving axle.
“I’m not saying it’ll never visit another railway – but they’d have to come up with a pretty good case.”