Western Region supported Butlin’s sale

I would like to comment on the letter from David Ward ‘Let’s remember the men who created the National Collection’. The letter clearly makes some excellent points but is factually very incorrect in the statement that Sir Billy Butlin was given a negative response by the Western Region in a request made to buy a ‘King’.

At this time, my late father William John Mayo, always known as ‘John’, was the Chief Rolling Stock Officer of the Western Region, being based in the General Manager’s office at Paddington. The potential sale of a ‘King’ to Butlin’s was a topic he knew a lot about. It was something the WR heavily supported to the extent that, in March 1963, the best of the remaining ‘Kings’ in traffic, No. 6018 King Henry VI, was sent to Swindon where it received an extensive amount of ‘TLC’ both cosmetically and mechanically. Negotiations were in hand with Butlin’s and preparations were in hand to move the locomotive to Pwllheli – clearly not a regular ‘King’ working! Then came the bombshell: Butlin’s had pulled out, having been made a cheaper offer by the London Midland Region for No. 46203.

David Ward’s letter hints at how this was possible, i.e. a bulk deal including three other large locos. However, the episode left the Western with considerable egg on its face given the time, money and, yes, love, that they had put into 6018. As for 6018 itself, it worked an SLS special at the end of April 1963 and was then quietly scrapped.

To his dying day, my father referred to 6018 as ‘The One That Got Away’ and was bitterly critical for the duplicity of the Butlin’s organisation, as he saw it. He would be turning in his grave if he were able to read that the Western Region gave a negative response to Sir Billy. The case was quite the opposite.

THEN CAME THE BOMBSHELL: BUTLIN’S HAD PULLED OUT