Galatea runs in green as Alberta
West Coast owner David Smith gets the drop on enthusiasts with BR green ‘Jubilee’ makeover.
IT WAS ALWAYS ON THE CARDS THAT WE WOULD REPAINT THE ENGINE BRUNSWICK GREEN AT SOME STAGE DAVID SMITH
Main line steam fleet owner David Smith has pulled the rug from beneath the feet of enthusiasts by unexpectedly re-launching his ‘Jubilee’ 4-6-0 No. 45699 Galatea into traffic in the guise of long-scrapped sister engine No. 45562 Alberta.
The West Coast Railways company chairman, who has long contended that what he does with his engines is “nobody else’s business but mine”, got the drop on main line followers by pairing the ‘new’ BR lined green liveried Alberta with his identically turnedout ‘Royal Scot’ No. 46115 Scots Guardsman on WCRC’s Lancaster
– Carlisle ‘Santa Special’ (out and back via Shap) on November 24 – and few beyond his closest circle of confidantes and staff knew anything about it.
Well pleased at having kept the identity swap substantially under wraps until just a couple of days before its first outing, the Carnforth chief told Steam Railway: “It was always on the cards that we would repaint the engine Brunswick Green at some stage, but we only decided to go ahead with it as Alberta a few days beforehand.”
Galatea, previously liveried in Crimson Lake – a non-authentic livery but one which perfectly matched West Coast’s maroon Mk 1 passenger stock – was not in need of a repaint, said Mr Smith, but true to his reputation for secrecy and unpredictability, he decided to reincarnate
No. 45562 Alberta.
The nameplates for the Alberta re-creation, were, he disclosed, cast at the same time as those for the restored Galatea.
The repaint, he said, was completed “in just four or five days” in West Coast’s Carnforth paint shop. “It doesn’t take long.”
The transformation of Galatea as Alberta is particularly apposite, because, as David Smith affirms, “most of the motion and many of the fittings on Galatea originally came from Alberta”, having been acquired by Tyseley as spares for No. 45593 Kolhapur.
It is the second time that the WCRC chairman has pulled a flanker with Galatea. When the engine was finally restored in April 2013, he presented it for main line test running in the guise of No. 45690 Leander, though on that occasion, few enthusiasts were fooled. Galatea, he said, will remain as Alberta for the foreseeable future “or until someone annoys me. Then I might paint it purple.”
The original Alberta became a celebrity with steam enthusiasts as the last ‘Jubilee’ in BR service, being withdrawn from Leeds Holbeck shed on November 4 1967. Many hoped that it would be saved for preservation, but No. 45593 Kolhapur was chosen for Tyseley instead as it was said to be in better condition.
However, Alberta and classmate No. 45697 Achilles were moved to Tyseley on February 26
1968 to provide spare parts for Kolhapur, before being taken into Cashmore’s Great Bridge scrapyard on May 9 that year.
Alberta has been recreated once before in preservation – by Kolhapur, which appeared as its sister engine for a gala at Barrow Hill Roundhouse in July 1999.