LIVING WITH… LEANDER
Steam Railway’s first cover star
Four decades and 499 issues ago, LMS ‘Jubilee’ No. 5690 graced the cover of the very first Steam Railway magazine, with the headline – ‘Leander – cheating death, chasing ‘Scotsman’s’ glory’.
These words referred to that issue’s article on the Stanier 4-6-0, in which it was revealed that the locomotive’s then owners – Bill Ford and David Clarke of the Great Central Railway – had set Graham Campion, the ‘Jubilee’s’ full-time manager, an impossible task.
“Make Leander the most famous steam locomotive in the country.”
Mr Campion responded by telling them that the ‘5XP’, striking sight though it was in its LMS Crimson Lake livery, “can never be more famous than Flying Scotsman.”
The Midlands business duo accepted this – but promptly instructed him to “make Leander the second most famous preserved engine.”
Even that was instantly a hiding to nothing – for Mallard, or possibly Rocket, arguably hold the claim to that title, and always will. But since that first issue of Steam Railway sold just 300 shy of 50,000 copies, the LMS pretender to the throne gained fame among the railway community, at least.
As one of the brightest stars in the rising main line steam scene of the day, the ‘Jube’ was already a wellphotographed enthusiast celebrity, and it was by no means the last time that it would attain the coveted cover slot on SR.
GENERAL PRESERVATIONIST
But the name most famously associated with Leander today is not Ford, Clarke or Campion, but the Beet family – Chris Beet, his wife Leone, mother Betty and sister Nicola, who run the engine’s owning Jubilee Locomotive Company.
The family name was made famous in railway circles by Chris’ late father, Dr Peter Beet – the remarkable Morecambe GP who acquired Leander in October 1994, but who also, surely, holds some sort of preservation record for the number of steam locomotives that he either owned, or helped to save from scrap.
Even before BR steam ended, he was pulling strings – visiting Derby Works to examine BR records and find the best ‘Black Fives’ with only 5,000-10,000 miles on the clock, which were duly reallocated to 10A shed at Carnforth, the future Steamtown preservation centre.
His first purchase – Ivatt ‘2MT’ 2-6-0 No. 46441, in April 1967 – came about in such a fashion, explains Chris: “It was involved in a front-end collision at Lancaster Green Ayre in 1964 – the driver was injured, and you can still see its war wounds – so it was freshly shopped and then went to Carnforth, where Dad bought it.”
Easily the most historic engine that Peter rescued was ‘Black Five’ No. 44871, which he and accountant John Parkin had already secured by the time of its starring role on the ‘Fifteen Guinea Special’. But Peter also went on to acquire German and French ‘Pacifics’ – the latter in partnership with David Davis, who also bought ‘Black Fives’ Nos. 44932 and 45407 – a German 0-6-0T, and five Andrew Barclay 0-4-0STs, one of which Chris still owns.
In total, including
Leander, Peter owned or
part-owned 12 steam locomotives – but also had a hand in saving at least another dozen, possibly 14… including one or two in which Chris isn’t sure about the extent of his involvement!
These included the last two Fairburn 2-6-4Ts, at least six more ‘Black Fives’ (possibly seven) and three more engines from Barry scrapyard. “He talked Michael Wood – his partner in the Morecambe practice – into buying Raveningham Hall, even though he knew nothing about steam engines!” remembers Chris.
“Dad was mad keen – he loved all steam engines to bits. He’d have saved them all if he could.”
BIG ’UNS THAT GOT AWAY
Of course, he couldn’t – but therein lie more stories, and indeed, it was right back in the 1960s that the seeds were sown for his eventual purchase of Leander.
For Peter may hold another record of sorts – the tantalising list of locomotives that he attempted, but was unable, to preserve. Had he succeeded, we would not have needed a new-build Peppercorn ‘A1’ or Fowler 2-6-4T today, and even ‘Patriot’ The Unknown Warrior may not have filled such a glaring gap.
He tried for two of the banking engines at Tebay – Fowler ‘4P’ No. 42414 and Fairburn No. 42210 – and lined up a prospective buyer for ‘2MT’ No. 46400, but that person did not go ahead with the purchase and the prototype Ivatt 2-6-0 went to the breakers. What Peter really wanted, however, was a big ‘namer’. At an early stage, he set his sights on ‘A1’ No. 60158 Aberdonian, but being an LMS man at heart, his ultimate dream was a Stanier ‘Duchess’. “He loved ‘Coronations,” remembers Chris. “He grew up watching them.”
At least one was still potentially ‘available’ at the time – No. 46243 City of Lancaster, languishing in the Central Wagon Company’s scrapyard at Ince, minus its tender and motion – but having just set up his practice and bought his house for £1,200 (about £23,000 today) he could not afford it. “He was on quite good money,” says Chris, “but he always spent within his means.”
One source states that he also tried to buy No. 46255 City of Hereford and Ivatt 2-6-2T No. 41286; and while Chris doesn’t know about these, he confirms that his father was also offered a three-cylinder, Stanierinfluenced 4-6-0 – not a ‘Jubilee’, but rebuilt ‘Patriot’ No. 45526 Morecambe and Heysham. With the local connections of its name, he recalls: “He approached Morecambe and Heysham council to put some cash in and bring it to Carnforth – but they wouldn’t.”
WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED
All these missed opportunities explain Peter’s words, in the February 1995 issue of Steam Railway, regarding his acquisition of Leander: “It’s alright owning French and German ‘Pacifics’ – that’s a duty of science – but I haven’t got a British express engine.”
Acquired by the Severn Valley Railway in late 1983 when Messrs Ford and Clarke ran into financial difficulties, but last steamed in 1989, Leander finally gave Peter the home-grown, top link locomotive – preferably LMS and red – that he had been denied 30 years before.
Even then, though, it wasn’t his first choice… that had still been a ‘Coronation’.
In that same report, he said: “The big bird I wanted was Duchess of Sutherland. About a year ago, I offered Alan Bloom either or both the French and German ‘Pacifics’ in exchange – but he was after a straight sale.”
In fact, reveals Chris, there’s even more history behind this. When ‘Sutherland’ was on display at Butlin’s Heads of Ayr holiday camp, he says: “Dad reached an agreement with the camp manager to have it on loan – but there was a postal strike and the correspondence was never signed off.
“Then Bressingham negotiated for it, and he took them to court, but he lost because he couldn’t prove that he’d had legal title to it.”
IMPULSE BUY
Leander, it seems, has never been anybody’s first choice – except for Brian Oliver, the Stockport businessman and member of the Bahamas Locomotive Society who
was so impressed with the latter’s No. 45596 that he purchased its classmate from Barry scrapyard in 1972, and had it restored to LMS glory at BR’s Derby Works.
But when Mr Oliver’s firm suffered financial troubles in 1977, and Leander was put on the market, Bill Ford remembered that in order to persuade GWR enthusiast David Clarke to buy it, he had to point out that it had at least been designed by a Swindon man…
Even Chris admits: “I was chuffed when Dad bought it, but I’d rather have had a BR Standard!
“When he rang up to tell me ‘we’ve bought
Leander’ I said ‘you must be bonkers’.
“He’d paid £125,000 for it, and I asked ‘did you haggle?’ He said ‘no, I want it!’
“I’d have said it was worth less than £100k – it was complete, but very tired.
“So then I asked ‘what now?’ and he replied ‘I’m going to get it running’.
“I asked ‘have we got any money?’ and he said ‘no, we’ll have to do it piecemeal’.”
With the ‘Jubilee’ moved to the East Lancashire Railway, the family did just that. “We went to Bury every weekend for eight years,” remembers Chris. “Sometimes I didn’t go to work – I called in sick because I was so knackered!
“We overhauled the tender ourselves, put on a new smokebox and front tubeplate – but it would have taken years longer without the lottery grant.”
This £78,400 windfall, in February 2000, was thought to be the first instance of the then Heritage Lottery Fund assisting a project that was not being undertaken by a registered charity – but Peter convinced the lottery that the Jubilee Locomotive Company was a nonprofit-making organisation, with the same preservation principles as a charitable body.
COVER ALBUM
Leander’s eventual return to steam, at the ELR in January 2003, was keenly anticipated by the enthusiast fraternity – but the really big news came two years later, when it returned to the cover of Steam Railway to announce its return to the main line.
Its reappearance on the national network was thanks to a partnership with Vintage Trains, whose engineer Bob Meanley had previously been in charge of operating the ‘Jubilee’ in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when it was first based at Carnforth under Bill Ford’s and David Clarke’s ownership.
In those days, No. 5690 had indeed enjoyed celebrity status; appearing in the ‘Rocket 150’ cavalcade; roaming as far afield as the Welsh Marches and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway; regularly doing battle with the ‘Settle & Carlisle’ line – including memorable double-headers with Midland Compound No. 1000 – and even coming to the rescue of a failed Class 40 diesel on the ‘Long Drag’.
As we put it in that 2005 issue: “At a time when main line steam was proving itself, Leander was helping to do it. Back then, Leander was the machine.”
Under the 21st century Vintage Trains banner, it regained something of that limelight, returning to some classic ‘Jubilee’ territory that had not echoed to that sixbeat rhythm for decades – not least the Midland Main Line, and the Lickey Incline. The latter was a fitting celebration of the locomotive’s 70th birthday in March 2006, and the first appearance of a ‘Jubilee’ on the fearsome 1-in-37 bank since the 1960s.
The pinnacle of this era, however – and the exploit that stands out most in Chris’ memory – was the first preservation-era appearance of a ‘Jubilee’ over Shap, picking up the late Mike Notley’s award of ‘Railtour of the Year’ in 2006 for one of the best-ever recorded efforts on the 1-in-75 bank. “We’d always talked about getting it up Shap,” says Chris. “I was worried it wouldn’t perform – but it proved itself.”
At the regulator that day was the late Albert Seymour, whom Chris remembers fondly. “He was brought up at Newton Heath shed, where the biggest engines they had were ‘Jubilees’ – he made it go like the wind, but he never hammered it.”
Albert passed away in May 2018 at the age of 80, and on its next railtour from Liverpool to Scarborough, Leander carried a wreath in the blue and white colours of Manchester City, which he supported. Says Preston North End and Manchester United fan Chris: “We
wouldn’t put blue on our engine for anyone else! He was a smashing fellow.”
More recently, on the ‘Hadrian’ tour of July 27 this year, Leander paid tribute to another figure from its past – Bill Ford, whose ashes were placed in its firebox as the train headed through Dentdale.
FULL CIRCLE
Over a decade on from that “incredible” run over Shap, ascents of the famous 1-in-75, and over the ‘roof of England’ on the ‘Settle & Carlisle’, have become regular assignments for Leander – for in 2008, the wheel turned full circle. Following a short spell back at the ELR, the ‘Jubilee’ returned to its former home and the place where the Beets’ preservation story began – Carnforth.
Explains Chris: “Tyseley had bankrolled it, but after the second season we were quits – they’d filled trains with it, but in terms of being special, it had passed its shelf life.”
But there was another factor in the return to 10A. Dr Peter Beet’s dream of seeing Leander at speed on the main line had been fulfilled – but he sadly passed away on October 28 2005 at the age of 68, after a long and tenacious battle with leukaemia.
“We were at a low ebb after Dad died,” says Chris, “and we talked about selling the loco.
“But David Smith said ‘no, don’t sell it, you’ll regret it – bring it to Carnforth’, and Brian Caldwell of West Coast arranged it.
“David didn’t help us out financially, but he saw us right – we said we only wanted to do out-and-back day trips, so we did the ‘Scarborough Spa Expresses’, as he only had the ‘8F’ [No. 48151] and Scots Guardsman running at that time.”
Today, Leander is effectively part of the West Coast Railway Company ‘pool’ of main line machines, along with Princess Elizabeth – but unlike the Stanier ‘Pacific’, which is owned and operated by a group (Locomotive 6201 Princess Elizabeth Society), the ‘Jubilee’ remains in the hands of the Beets.
Chris, who has been the engineering manager at West Coast since 2014, admits: “If we weren’t at Carnforth, it would be very difficult to run it… I finish work at 4.30pm, put my overalls on and get Leander ready!”
FAMILY BUSINESS
Leander really is a ‘family engine’, he continues.
“We all look after it in different ways – I do the general managing; my wife, mother and sister are all directors; and my son Andrew comes out with us on the support crew.
“Mum looks after the support coach, and comes out with us for Cumbrian Coast trips, but not for long days – she’s now 82.
“Leone is the ‘head of nutrition’ – she looks after the support crew and feeds them. She says ‘if you look after the boys, there’s a chance they’ll come again’.”
When Chris says “my whole life revolves around keeping Leander working” he means exactly that. When his wedding anniversary coincided with the need to prepare the ‘Jubilee’ for a ‘Scarborough Spa Express’, he recounts: “Leone and I went into York on Saturday night, stayed in the support coach and got the engine ready for the next weekend!”
The support crew consists of “a hard core of five, who do virtually every weekend and whatever’s required,”
says Chris, “but if we’re a bit short, the West Coast guys help out – it’s a big team effort.
“From July to September, everyone pulls on the rope – that’s our main source of income.”
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS
In contrast to its nomadic times in the 1980s and with Vintage Trains, Leander generally stays close to home these days, plying its trade on scenic routes in the North West. “I love the Cumbrian Coast line,” says Chris. “To be honest, if all we ever did was the ‘S&C’, I’d be happy.
“People ask ‘why don’t you go down to London, there’s loads of work there’ but I don’t want to. When we did the ‘Great Britain’ last year, the lads had to plan in advance and take weeks of holiday.
“We got to Bo’ness at about 3am, and we’d split the crew into disposal and preparation shifts – they were passing in the coach as they got up and went to bed.
“After we service the engine, there’s usually this noise of laughter and merriment in the coach, but then you suddenly realise it’s gone quiet – everyone’s having a rest, and they know not to disturb each other – then as we approach the next water stop, they start to come to life again…”
The hours are incredibly long and the work is hard, but the reward is the opportunity to see and hear this express racehorse doing what it was designed for. That ‘Great Britain XI’ in 2018 was the first occasion on which Leander double-headed with West Coast’s No. 45699 Galatea, the ‘Jubilee’ that had its driving wheels cut through at Barry, and was only purchased from the yard as a source of spares for its classmate. Dr Peter Beet’s deal with the SVR in 1994 had originally included both engines for £150,000, but he decided against taking on the derelict engine that, even then, still looked like a no-hoper.
“We need to do more double-headed ‘Jubilees’,” enthuses Chris. Although he prefers not to travel too far afield too often, he does express a desire to visit Fort William – and his ultimate ambition is take Leander and Galatea over the Highland main line to Inverness together.
On the jaunt to Blaenau Ffestiniog this August with No. 48151, he says, “we couldn’t hear Leander over the noise of the ‘8F’ – but when you get two ‘Jubilees’ together, they roar like a pair of jet engines!”
IT’S A BLAST
Leander’s smaller sphere of operation today means that it is no longer quite the celebrity it once was – but while ascents of Shap have almost become routine, it hasn’t lost its ability to make enthusiasts sit up and take notice with that three-cylinder roar.
It’s a minor change that you can’t see from the outside – but No. 45690 has recently joined the ranks of locomotives such as Duke of Gloucester and City of Wells, in using lessons from the past to improve main line steam’s performance today.
In June 2018, Chris modified its front end with the draughting arrangements fitted to No. 45722 Defence at Rugby Locomotive Testing Station in 1956. This engine, in the words of ‘Jubilee’ expert Ray Townsin, was “barely able to meet a steam rate considered adequate for several types of Class 4 4-6-0 when burning inferior coal” – but the tweaks at Rugby increased its steam output from as little as 15,000lbs per hour to as much as 24,000lbs, and BR Chief Mechanical Engineer
R.C. Bond authorised similar changes to eleven more examples (see page 50).
So, if these changes could make such dramatic improvements to a poor steamer, what would they do to a ‘Jubilee’ that was already a good ’un?
Thanks to Leander, we now know. Dr John Sagar, a volunteer steward with the Railway Touring Company, informed us: “The results are very striking: she seems much more free running and quicker off the mark, and steams furiously. 45699 will have to look to her laurels.”
The irony of this comment, reveals Chris, is that Leander’s alterations were originally intended for the latter engine: “When we got Galatea going, it was awful – it wouldn’t steam – so we made a Rugby blastpipe for it, but it was never fitted because we found it steamed better if you let its blastpipe fur up!” This refers to the deposits of carbonised oil that inevitably collect in a locomotive’s exhaust passages – and, in this case, had sharpened the draught on Galatea’s fire by reducing the size of the blastpipe orifice.
In the case of the Rugby pattern, however, Chris explains that the improvement is down to a lip on the inside of the blastpipe, which “creates a vortex in the blast” and thus increases the vacuum in the smokebox that is essential for good steaming.
During its restoration, Galatea had received a new – but original – ‘Jubilee’ chimney found in Crewe Works, because its own had been removed at Barry and fitted to Leander during No. 5690’s initial restoration at Derby in 1972-73.
That chimney later found its way into Chris’ garden, serving as a goal in football games with his sons, while between 2003 and 2011, Leander carried the chimney from 1967 celebrity No. 45675 Hardy, which had been found in another garden in Oldham.
At the next overhaul, however, Hardy’s chimney was sold because it was “knackered”, while No. 45699’s original was extracted from Chris’ garden and bored out in order to fit a new liner to the 1956 Rugby design.
“Increased vigour was in evidence” from Leander on the ‘Cumbrian Mountain Express’ of July 13 this year, says experienced train timer Doug Landau, with the ‘5XP’ hauling its maximum load of 11 coaches. Between Oxenholme and Shap Summit, it beat the 1950s timings for the eight-coach ‘Caledonian’ by nearly a minute – on the Vintage Trains tour of 2006, it had knocked almost 2½ minutes off the allowance for the crack express, but with only nine carriages behind the tender.
It was Bob Meanley who suggested the Rugby modifications, adds Chris: “He kept saying that Leander never went quite as well as when he looked after it!”
But in that friendly rivalry, Chris gets his own back with Leander’s firebox backplate cladding – which is made of stainless steel.
‘It was Dad’s idea,” he remembers. “The old cladding was knackered, and I asked ‘are we going to paint it?’ but he said ‘no, we’ll have it shiny – it’s my engine.’ It looks lovely.
“We paint it with Vaseline, then that runs and picks up the dirt, and it wipes off when you gas the locomotive up. We learned that from Tyseley – it’s how they do their engines.
“Bob goes on about how good his GWR engines look – so I say ‘we have burnished firebox doors, beat that!’”
REMAIN LINER
Prior to the Tyseley partnership, Leander had been confined to the ELR and other preserved railways because, although the Beets always held the ambition of taking the ‘Jubilee’ back onto the national network, at that time they had felt unable to resource it on their own.
But the intervening years have changed Chris’ perspective, and now that Leander is back on the main line, it will, by and large, stay there – because, he asserts, it’s better for the locomotive, both in monetary and mechanical terms.
“You have to do just as much work to restore a locomotive for preserved lines,” he says, “but you don’t get the financial benefit – on one main line run, you can get as much money as ten days on a preserved line.
“For a Liverpool to Scarborough, Holyhead or ‘Cumbrian Mountain Express’ we charge in the region of £7,000 – but the last time we spoke to a preserved line we were quoted a hire fee of £700-800.
“But it’s only once you’ve made that initial investment,” he continues, referring to the mandatory Train Protection & Warning System and other electronic equipment, which would cost “£60,000-70,000, if you were starting from scratch now.
“Insurance is circa £8,000, and the annual inspection by a contractor is £2,500, so you soon spend it!
“All our funding comes out of hire fees – the family chipped in to finish the last overhaul in 2014, but there’s nobody else financially involved.
“We get occasional donations, which are always welcome, but everything we earn is salted away in the kitty for the future – we spend £20k a year on maintenance, and it’s going to cost £30k for the new firebox crown stays.” These are one of the main jobs to be undertaken during Leander’s current winter maintenance period, which began in early November, and which Chris estimates will take until April.
Although it covers an estimated 5,000-6,000 miles a year on the main line, he continues, “on a preserved line, half of that would be tender-first – which would mean much more tyre wear – and the engine is under a lot of strain with all that stopping and starting. It’s much better off running from Manchester to Carlisle.”
Leander is not completely barred from steam railways, though – in March 2018, it took part in a gala at the ELR (where Chris is still a driver) and in 2010, it memorably returned to its former SVR home, making a perfect match with the only complete rake of LMS coaches in preservation.
“We’ll do visits to preserved lines, if we can fit it in,” says Chris, “but we go with it, and we use our own oil rather than mixing it up from different manufacturers.”
The other reason he’s cautious about sending it to steam lines, he adds, is an understandable concern over who might end up at the controls. “At Carnforth, I do the maintenance and I know who’s driving it each day – they treat it with respect, but some drivers on the Ivatt seemed to want to turn it inside out.
“Dad was into Jaguars as well – he had an XK120 and an E-type – and he used to say that he wouldn’t let just anyone drive the E-type, so why would you do that with your steam loco?
FAMILY HEIRLOOM
Managing Leander, he admits, “is a challenge – but
I like it.”
Above all, he says, “I do it to keep my dad’s memory alive – I promised him I’d look after the engines.” And because of that, he promises: “We will keep Leander going as long as we can.”
But how much longer will that be? Potentially, Chris admits, it could be just one more ‘ten-year’ boiler certificate – and it’s not a foregone conclusion that Leander will still be on the main line to celebrate its centenary in March 2036.
For its next overhaul is due in just under four years – in October 2023 – and, says Chris: “Realistically, it will probably be the last one I’ll do.
“I’ll be 56 then, so I’ll be 66 by the time the following overhaul comes round – if I’m fit and able I’ll need someone to help me.
“Pete Oldcroft, our longest serving volunteer, has been with us for 25 years, but others have come and gone – some find it’s not what they thought and drift off.”
So that pledge to “keep it going as long as we can” is tempered with a pragmatic “finance and labour permitting”. Otherwise, he confirms, it will be necessary to find somewhere to place the ‘Jubilee’ under cover on static display.
Would he therefore let it go to a new owner who could keep it running? No, he says firmly, because Leander is a part of the family now.
“I can’t sell it,” he says, and one is in no doubt that he means it when he continues: “It’s in my heart, it’s my pet.
“It would feel immoral to sell it, because it would go against my dad’s principles of saving engines – and a lot of people are giving their time to run it.
I do it to keep my dad’s memory alive – I promised him I’d look after the engines CHRIS BEET
“It’s probably worth quite a lot, but it’s worth something more than money – the Ivatt has been in the family for 50 years.”
This might sound like a depressing scenario – just like the impending withdrawal of Union of South Africa. A much-loved main line star, permanently retired to a cold plinth, and never to breathe fire, smoke and steam again because its owner is unwilling to sell at any price.
But Chris doesn’t want to see this either. “I’m not interested in seeing engines sitting around,” he assures us. “I want to see them working.”
Although the family Ivatt was indeed stuffed and mounted at the Ribble Steam Railway after its last boiler ticket ran out in 2002, the recent ‘restore and run’ agreement with the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway will involve not just its return to steam, but on the very line where Dr Peter Beet intended it to operate back in 1967.
“If the Lakeside hadn’t come along with their offer, the Ivatt would still be sitting in the shed at Ribble,” admits Chris. “We as a family decided we’d keep the ‘Jubilee’ going as long as we can – but it soaks up every spare minute of the day!
“So we decided that the Ivatt was safe, dry and tidy – we have a good relationship with Ribble, and we’ve promised that it will go back there for a visit – but the Lakeside is a good railway, not too strenuous, they look after their engines, and it was a chance to get it done up without taking up our resources.”
And if a similar situation arose that meant Leander could continue to have a working future, he confirms, the family would be open to it.
“I treat it like a living creature,” he says. “I love it and respect it, so to think that it would never run again… I couldn’t accept that.”
B-loveD
Looking back over 40 years to that first Steam Railway cover, and Graham Campion’s contention that the ‘Jubilee’ could never be our most famous locomotive, Chris agrees: “Leander is a B-list celebrity, not an A-list celebrity – but it has run a lot in preservation.”
Indeed it has – so much so that it’s easy to forget how it spent over a quarter of that time languishing unloved on the sidelines.
Throughout its trailblazing days in the 1970s and 1980s, and since its welcome back in 2003, Leander has been one of those engines that seems to be always ‘just there’ – not always grabbing the headlines, but a constant, reassuring presence, like a member of the family.
That is more true now that it’s ever been. With its repeat itinerary of forays over the northern fells, Leander is far less in the limelight than in 1979 – and yet, that in itself is something special. More than 50 years after Alberta, Achilles and Kolhapur were hammering the metals of the ‘Settle & Carlisle’ in one last blaze of glory for express passenger steam, it is somehow a comforting, reassuring thought that a ‘Jubilee’ can still be seen – and certainly heard – in full cry over the ‘Long Drag’ week in, week out.
But such things are all too easy to take for granted – and the possibility that Leander could be permanently retired is a sobering reminder that, even in a ‘preservation’ world, we must never assume that anything will still be there tomorrow.
If and when the day comes that Leander’s fire must be dropped for the last time, it will be a sad moment for everyone, Chris most of all. But it seems that it will always remain a cherished member of his family – and much loved by the wider enthusiast family.