MISSION COMPLETE
Having rewritten the preservation rule book with its supposedly ‘impossible’ return to steam, Duke of Gloucester went on to make new history with a series of record-breaking performances.
The ‘Duke’: Breaking records and rewriting the rule book.
The year 1986 was to prove pivotal for the Duke of Gloucester restoration team – it was the year in which the unique locomotive, once written off by the preservation movement as an ‘impossible’ project, would finally confound the doubters with its triumphant return to steam.
Twelve long years since the butchered remains of British Railways’ prototype Class 8 ‘Pacific’ had arrived on the then nascent Great Central Railway, the finishing line was in sight. The ‘Duke’ was complete, fully painted and lined but with two rather important components missing – the rear sections of the coupling rods which had still to be delivered from Brush Engineering.
Undeterred, the team elected to run a member’s special on May 25 1986 along what had become, by then, a GCR of respectable length, the locomotive running as a 4-4-2-2! This has to rank as one of the more bizarre episodes in the life of this unique locomotive, although the team had, by that time, run a number of trips up and down the line with the locomotive hauling just a couple of coaches. The elation and excitement of members finally being hauled by the machine they had toiled on for so long can only be imagined.
On November 11 1986 (Armistice Day), the official renaming and rededication of the, by now, completed No. 71000 took place amid suitable pomp and splendour at Rothley station. H.R.H. the
Duke of Gloucester himself drew back the curtain to reveal the new nameplate, proceeding then to the footplate where, after donning a pair of overalls, he tried his hand at the regulator as No. 71000 took the train to Loughborough and back. Thereafter the locomotive settled in for a period of public running on the GCR as a thank you for all their help and support over the years.
Crewe-d awakening
In June 1987 the ‘Duke’ left the GCR to return to its birthplace of Crewe, taking part in a major exhibition alongside other notable products of the town’s railway works, including No. 6201 Princess Elizabeth. Also, the Wheelset Manufacturing Company of Manchester had offered to make new tyres for the locomotive and tender free of charge, so the opportunity was taken to lift the locomotive at Crewe Works.
While this work was going on, thoughts naturally turned to whether the team should now be looking at returning No. 71000 to the main line. The opportunity to open up the ‘Duke’ on the GCR was limited, but the locomotive had shown much promise. In addition, it is probably fair to say that everyone involved now wanted to know whether the fitting of the Kylchap exhaust and other changes had eliminated the problems which had bedevilled the locomotive in service.
However, such ambition was not to be easily
achieved. Once the ‘Duke’ was sitting on its newly re-tyred wheels it became apparent that a BR inspector’s report on the internal examination of the boiler was missing. As if that wasn’t bad enough, some of the advice and guidance given to the restoration team over the years now proved to be at variance with regulations introduced in January of that year. In order to gain access to the main line, the boiler now needed to be stripped of all superheater elements and tubes. In addition, some mechanical stripping down was required, including the poppet valves and gear.
It is hard to imagine a more demoralising choice. The group could elect to have the ‘Duke’ trundle up and down preserved lines for ten years, and then seek main line certification as part of the next overhaul, or they could bite the bullet and get on with the work. To their eternal credit, this team which had come so far then girded their loins for this last major challenge.
The sheer frustration of having to gut the boiler is hard to imagine (not to mention the financial costs) and the fact that the BR inspector declared the empty shell “immaculate” on February 28 1989 was probably little compensation. The boiler had then to be re-tubed and new superheater elements sourced, while British Timken undertook some work to the roller bearings. It was not until February 8 1990 – almost three years since returning to Crewe – that No. 71000 passed the BR examination in steam, and the scene was set for its long anticipated return to the main line.
Changing perceptions
It was 10.25am on Wednesday March 14 1990, five minutes after the scheduled departure time of the BR test train, when a lengthy blast from the ‘Duke’s’ chime whistle indicated that, finally, the moment of truth had arrived. Would the locomotive, with all its improvements, finally demonstrate the potential which Riddles and his team had intended? Clouds of black smoke rolled across Derby station as, after a brief wheel slip, the Duke began to accelerate its 14-coach, 507-ton train. Those on the footplate were old hands at putting steam locomotives through their paces. However, even they were surprised to find that No. 71000
was capable of whisking this huge train around the Derby-Sheffield-Derby circuit at a speed almost on a par with the then timetabled InterCity 125 trains (280 tons and two diesel power units).
Duke of Gloucester had only achieved a steaming rate of 34,000lbs per hour on the Swindon test plant back in 1955, but now it was producing 45,000lbs ‘on the road’ with much more in reserve. This was most evidently not the ‘Duke’ of old, but a very different machine which would seem capable of even greater performances. That historic day was the beginning of a new era.
Early tours threw up a few teething problems with the return cranks and rocking grate, but these were gradually addressed, and on an early tour from Marylebone the locomotive tackled Hatton bank with such ease that a seasoned enthusiast was moved to remark: “Hatton bank – what bank?”
Most of the early runs were focused on the Didcot area, because the Great Western Society at Didcot had made its facilities available to the team for the boiler and other work necessary to return the ‘Duke’ to the main line. However, in June 1990, No. 71000 was at the head of a train which took the locomotive back to its spiritual home of Crewe. In a wonderful gesture, the then area manager, Jan Glasscock, was on the platform complete with bowler hat to greet the ‘Duke’.
This would be the true test, since, at that time, there were still BR employees who had experience of the ‘Duke’ in service and would take some convincing that the performance of this ‘near miss’ had been transformed. One ex-Crewe North shed driver apparently said: “There is no getting away from the fact that [the ‘Duke’] was considered by the drivers and firemen there… as the greatest disaster ever to have come off the drawing boards.” This is perhaps a little harsh, but the point is well made.
That summer the ‘Duke’, berthed at Crewe Heritage Centre and immaculately turned out by its gang of dedicated cleaners, put in a number of excellent performances on the ‘North Wales Coast Express’ to Holyhead. This route is fast and hardly taxing, except for the nasty gradient which begins at the platform end at Holyhead. The ‘Duke’ showed complete mastery of this climb, with all loads, and repeated the performance later in the summer on the ‘Yns Mon Express’ trains.
By this time the drivers were running with the short cut-offs which the Caprotti valve gear allows, with their firemen able to keep three quarters of a glass of water and pressure just below blowing off – a state of affairs unheard of in times past. Thus ingrained prejudices were slowly overturned, and the Crewe men delighted in the fact that their ‘black sheep’ was clearly transformed – but was it now the equal of their beloved ‘Duchesses’? Time would tell and the Northern Fells were not going anywhere.
Record breaker
In September 1990, the ‘Duke’ departed Crewe for Carnforth to do battle with the Settle & Carlisle line, a route over which it had never previously worked. By this period, the 15-mile, 1-in-100 gradient, forming the southbound climb to Ais Gill summit from Carlisle, was regarded as the definitive test for both engines and crews.
The importance of this test was not lost on the ‘Duke’s’ team, as No. 46229 Duchess of Hamilton was the current holder of the fastest ascent of this gradient and, moreover, that record had stood for almost seven years. On its second southbound run on September 30, the ‘Duke’, on wet rails and hauling a 14-coach train (512 tons as against 485 tons hauled by the ‘Duchess’), came within 27 seconds of beating No. 46229’s time. Although there was disappointment the enginemen made it clear that No. 71000 had
‘more in it yet’.
It was not until July 20 1991 that the ‘Duke’ had another opportunity for a tilt at the ‘Duchess’s’ crown (or should that be tiara?). It was the last run of the summer (which had been marked by either excessive rain or tinder dry conditions with its associated fire risk) and on the footplate was the experienced crew of driver Willie Alexander and fireman Paul Kane. These were the very two who had set the record with the ‘Duchess’, so expectations were high.
Departure from Appleby was dramatic with startling acceleration. The ‘Long Drag’ was taken at an average speed of 53.8mph and the summit topped in 17 minutes – almost a minute faster than the ‘Duchess’. The ‘Duke’ had taken the ‘Blue Riband’ and, in Paul Kane’s words, it had been “no problem at all”. Steaming throughout the climb had been consistent, the injectors had kept up and water had been maintained at three quarters of a glass. This was vindication of all the thought and hard effort that had been put into the ‘Duke’ rebuild. Or was it? This was, after all, the hated Midland route. To the Crewe purists there was only one true test – Shap.
What visions of effort are thrown up by that word? The whole panoply of LNWR locomotives, followed by all Stanier’s designs, doing battle with the incline, often after some 250 miles of hard running from Euston. The five-mile climb of Shap itself is preceded by the 13-mile climb to Grayrigg (interspersed with a more or less level
five-mile stretch along the Lune valley) and it is the surmounting of the two climbs that is the real test.
The Shap Trials in October 1995 gave the ‘Duke’ its first opportunity in rebuilt form to show its mettle on home turf. To add to the excitement, it was pitted not only against its one-time fellow Crewe North shed resident Duchess of Hamilton, but also against its LNER rival, ‘A4’ Sir Nigel Gresley. In the event it was a triumph for the ‘Duke’, which, on a wet rail and in the teeth of rain and high wind, topped the summit at over 50mph, both safety valves lifting as the regulator was eased – a vindication of the basic soundness of the original design and the rebuild team’s transformational changes.
Difficult times
Over the next few years, the ‘Duke’ ranged far and wide across the UK, setting new standards and indeed new records on the likes of the South Devon Banks. Consistently turned out to a very high standard, it became a firm favourite with many, its staccato exhaust, melodious chime whistle and mysteriously revolving Caprotti driveshafts combining to give it an extra ‘something’.
It was after its first overhaul on the expiry of its boiler ‘ticket’ that things began to go awry. The locomotive was owned by a private limited liability company (formed in the early years of the rebuild) which had leased the locomotive to a charitable trust. This trust had the responsibility to run, maintain and generally look after the company’s asset.
Regrettably, the relationship between the owning company and the trust deteriorated, resulting in the trust severing contact with the company and leaving the latter with no say in how its asset was managed. There then followed a steady deterioration of relationships within the trust itself which, inevitably, led to a fall off in the reliability of the locomotive.
After a number of incidents, the ‘Duke’ failed with issues in one of its camboxes and it was withdrawn from traffic, with its reputation, and that of the trust, at a very low ebb. The locomotive then sat at Crewe Heritage Centre while ways forward were sought.
Eventually the managing trust recognised that the breakdown in internal relationships was final and, with little cash behind them, decided to hand the locomotive back to the owning company and put themselves into voluntary liquidation.
The company then immediately began the process of setting up a new charitable trust to manage the ‘Duke’ on their behalf. This time, steps were taken to ensure that the interests of both the company and the trust were better aligned in order to not repeat the previous mistakes. Thus came into being the BR Class 8 Steam Locomotive Trust, which quickly put in place a management committee (now comprising trustees and shareholders) and has mapped out a future for the ‘Duke’.
On our current, contractually interdependent railway, there is a need to be as professional as possible, so the trust has partnered with Tyseley Locomotive Works to undertake the bulk of the
current ‘heavy general’ overhaul, and it is intended that Tyseley will also provide ongoing maintenance.
Re-writing history
The ‘Duke’ is a unique piece of our nation’s engineering heritage in so many ways. It was not the next one of a long-defunct class, but a complete one-off. It is the sole representative of the direction in which British steam locomotion could have gone had BR not embarked upon its ‘dash for diesel’. In that regard, it is a glimpse of an alternative future.
Its rescue from Barry and its supposedly ‘impossible’ restoration also give it a unique place in preservation history, having acted as a pathfinder for the various groups who have set out on their own journeys since. Our broad movement today owes much to the vision, hard work and sheer grit of the team who took on the ‘Duke’ from Barry. ‘Never in the field of UK steam restoration, has so much been owed by so many to so few’ to paraphrase Winston Churchill.
In January 1987, at the annual general meeting of the Association of Railway Preservation Societies, the ‘Duke’s’ team received the association’s Premier Award for the most outstanding achievement of 1986. In presenting the award, John Bellwood OBE, the then chief mechanical engineer of the National Railway Museum, commented that the ‘Duke’ team had “now re-written preservation history and no project could be written off as impossible”.
It is my view that we, today, owe a huge debt of gratitude to these plucky pioneers and that we have a duty to them to return the ‘Duke’ to the main line as quickly as possible.