In this edition click to go further to:
Financial Matters or Restoration report or The early years: Rescuing an engine
| Ray Bellingham | Chairman and Chief Engineer |
c/o Sheffield Park Workshop, Bluebell Railway. |
| Rodney Packham | Membership Secretary |
132 Church Road, Swanscombe, Kent, DA10 OHP. |
| Mike Frackiewicz | Company Secretary |
23 Stratton Avenue, South Wallington SM6 9LJ. |
| Steve Pilcher | Treasurer | 312 Riverside Mansions, Garnet Street, Wapping, London, El 9SZ. |
| Ian Hawkins | Newsletter Editor |
18 Hazlemere Road Whitstable, Kent CT5 4AN. |
| General Members: | ||
| George Binns, Felix Cope,
David Jones, Adrian Pinkess, David Pinkess, and Barry Smith |
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EDITOR'S COMMENTAs many of you will know, trains have now started running over the newly opened line to Kingscote from New Coombe Bridge. If you have not already done so, why not take a trip along the new section and view the distinctive Sussex countryside from a new perspective? It may well be that, on the day you choose to travel, your motive power will be our own S15 No.847, which will provide the icing on the cake. Further work remains to be done at Kingscote e.g. the erection of the signal box, but, for the present it remains to congratulate all those involved, including Kingscote workers., the tracklaying gang and the financial supporters, for a job well done.Moving closer to our own particular interests, in this issue there is an update to the continuing restoration of U Class 1638. There has been less progress on the King Arthur Project, so this has been held over for a future issue but I couldn't resist including one more (and final) look back at twenty five and more years ago. For future issues there are plans to describe some of the Maunsell coaches on the Bluebell (none owned by the Society unfortunately) and to include an article or two on Mr. Maunsell and his team. However, these are ideas only at this stage and could change. What do you the members like to see in the Newsletter? I look forward to hearing from you. IAN HAWKINS |
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CHAIRMAN'S REPORTI would like to thank all members for their continued support which has enabled us to pay for quite a bit of work to 1638 this year. As you will read in the engineering report, 1638's wheel sets are back from Swindon Works. Work has started on machining the axle boxes and we are therefore trying hard to rewheel the chassis by late summer, less than a year after dismantling the loco. Since the extent of the work required is possibly greater than anything we have tackled on other locos, the speedy rewheeling will be quite an achievement. 847 continues to perform well and will be one of the mainstays of the Bluebell's loco fleet this year. 1618 has required some minor replacement of small tubes and is beginning to show signs of needing its next ten year overhaul. Finally, I look forward to seeing some of you at the forthcoming AGM in August. RAY BELLINGHAM |
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Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who has supported us this financial year. So far we have raised £2,165. In addition, we have received a £1,000 final payment from our work on Camelot's cladding. As we carried forward a surplus of £3,853 from the last financial year, funds are in reasonable health. We have thus been able to spend (or incur bills) to the tune of about £5,700. We currently have about £1,300 in our accounts after allowance is made for bills which will have to be paid soon.
I must thank Peter Jessop, one of our working volunteers, for producing an excellent display board which is mounted on 1638's collection box. It details the history of the loco, the restoration work being undertaken and includes some good photos. It has been well received by the public and should give a boost to the takings from the donations box.
With this Newsletter, you will find enclosed a copy of the audited accounts for 1993, which show a healthy surplus of £6,303. In my last report, I gave a review of the income and expenditure for the year. This will be discussed at the AGM. You will find that, as last year, the auditors have reserved judgement on a couple of matters in their report. Due to changes in accountancy practices, auditors are apparently becoming ever more cautious in their endorsement of accounts and I have a letter from the auditors, which I will produce at the AGM, which shows that they are basically satisfied with our procedures bearing in mind that we are a modest sized society and accountancy conventions have to cover the workings of large limited companies as well as our operations.
As mentioned elsewhere, Ray Bellingham wants to get 1638's chassis rewheeled this year. So far, we have spent or incurred some £3,800 on bills for machining wheels, transport, new metal platework and machining the axle boxes. No doubt there will be perhaps another £1,000 for further work/materials and we still need to raise funds to purchase new forgings for the missing rods. So any contributions will be gratefully received.
Membership renewals have been good but some are still outstanding and 1 will be looking very closely at these in the near future. In addition, could all members please ensure that we are kept up to date with any changes of address.
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For
those members who are not able to visit the Bluebell so often and view the
locos of the Society, I can recommend a trip down to Sheffield Park yard
to view progress on 1638 which, considering the short time since we
started, is coming along nicely. After the boiler was removed and placed
behind the chassis in the yard, the loco was completely stripped. Since
then work has proceeded apace. Adrian Pinkess and Steve Pilcher have taken
an "historical" approach to their work (or should that be "hysterical"
perhaps?), having re-enacted Barry scrapyard circa 1970, using gas cutting
gear to remove the wasted plates of the drag box and the front buffer beam
for straightening (the latter to undo the damage sustained at Barry). All
went well and Ray Bellingham has been extra efficient and already had
steel plate cut to renew the wasted sections.
The
frames and associated parts are in an assortment of colours as priming,
undercoating and gloss coating proceeds. The cab roof and sides have been
stripped with a view to grafting in replacement panels or part panels to
rectify rust damage. Further obvious signs of progress are the pony truck
and wheel sets. Peter Jessop has "adopted" the
pony truck and stripped, freed up and prepared most parts which means that
the process of reassembly can begin shortly, especially as Ray Bellingham
has arranged for the axle boxes to be taken into the works for remetalling
and machining.
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The wheel sets have returned from tyre reprofiling at Swindon. With the return of the wheel sets, there is now extra motivation to achieve this year's target of having a rolling chassis reassembled. To this end, the wheel sets will soon receive the attention of the needle gun and painting crew, and attention will also turn to the driving wheel axle boxes and horn guides. Working parties vary considerably from week to week with some weekends showing a reasonable sized gathering but we could always do with more help so why not come along and meet a few of the working members personally? Even if you can manage to come only very rarely, a warm welcome and a dodgy cup of free tea awaits!
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Frames and boiler of 1638 with
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This year's swapmeet is to be held at Horsted Keynes in July. As usual, Felix Cope will be running a stall on behalf of the society. Last year he raised a very useful £500 for the society. We hope to do at least as well this year but to achieve this we need your support. Any donations of railwayana etc., will be put to good use. Felix is also still collecting used stamps for us and he can be contacted at "Feldor", Grassy Lane, Sevenoaks, Kent.
I always had an interest in steam locomotives but, due to the war and boarding school and then a period in the Royal Navy, any interest in railways in general was forced into the background. It was not until the sixties that my interest blossomed. I was living in Reigate at that time and there were always locomotives of the N and U Classes to be seen at Redhill although the shed there was in a very run down state by that time.
So it was to the Moguls of the Southern that I gradually became attached and you can imagine my disappointment when one was not saved for the official list of British Railways. The year was 1966 and the withdrawal of locos by the Southern Region of B.R. continued apace. I was, at that time, Membership Secretary of the Kent and East Sussex Railway at Tenterden. I voiced my thoughts to several people at Tenterden and found that there were others with similar ideas concerning Southern Moguls.
By this time, there were only four Moguls left, just two each from Classes N and U. These were used on some rail tours before being withdrawn and, in no time at all, they had been sent to Cashmore's yard in South Wales for scrap. Inside a month they were cut up, a vast difference to what was happening along the coast at Woodham's. Letters had been written to B.R. to save one of those still running but all to no avail. So began the fight to save one from among the scrap lines of Dai Woodham's yard.
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Pages 8&9
At Woodham's, we discovered that there were four U Class locomotives and one N. Enquiries ascertained that they were safe for a while but a big snag was discovered in that Woodham's contract with B.R. did not allow them to sell any locomotives. It was at this point that the late Captain Manisty, as Chairman of the A.R.P.S., was able to persuade B.R. to allow Woodham's to sell 1618 to the Society, this loco being chosen in preference to the other Moguls as being the most complete and in good all round general condition. We did not realise it at the time but, in our own small way, we were making history. 1618 was the second loco to leave the yard as the 4F left first and went to Keighley.
Eventually a home was found for 1618 at New Hythe near Maidstone. The loco was moved by rail along the former Great Western main line from South Wales to London where the night was spent stored at Hither Green Depot. The following day, 1618 was towed by the ubiquitous Crompton to New Hythe where she was pushed into a siding, and so began a new era in preservation. Compared to what happened later, we were lucky in those early days in that we had paid only a deposit of £700 before being allowed to move 1618 to Kent. Later groups had to find the full purchase before being allowed to move their locos. Completion of payment for 1618 was by instalments and, for this, we must thank Woodham's.
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This is basically the story of how 1618 came to be saved from the cutter's torch. It involved numerous committee meetings, some finishing so late that I often crawled into bed at three or four in the morning. I know that some foreigners think we are mad and sometimes I am inclined to agree but, looking back, I do not think that I would have had it any other way, and I reckon it was worth it.
Happy days!!
This long running saga has finally come to an end. Thanks must go to all those who struggled so valiantly over many months to get the job done, chiefly Adrian and Dave Pinkess, Steve Pilcher and Ray Vistucis. With the completion of the work, there was a small handing over ceremony during which a cheque for £1,000 was received from the Camelot Society. Hopefully, the loco should be completed by the end of the year or early in 1995. It will be a credit to the workshop staff and all the volunteers involved and will be a major asset to the railway.
Rodney Packham and Steve Pilcher produced some interesting archive slides of the society's work for their talk to the Gravesend Railway Enthusiasts Society m April. Over 20 people attended, the talk being well received. In the past, we have occasionally picked up new members from similar talks, so, if anyone knows of any potential future venues, please contact Rodney Packham or Steve Pilcher.
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S15 No.828 put in creditable performances this Spring on its runs over the Settle and Carlisle route. Was this the first working of an S15 over the line? Another S15, 30841, is now in its final year of service on the North Yorks Moors Railway before withdrawal for its next ten year overhaul. In May, it was in the workshops for attention to its bogie. Another Maunsell loco resident on the North Yorks is Schools class 30926 "Repton". This loco is in regular use. It has had its driving wheels reprofiled and this has helped to improve its performance considerably. It can now tackle the banks with ease.
News recently received from the Mid Hants Railway concerns U Class 31625 and N Class 31874. Work on the U is being carried out to B.R. requirements for main line running. The wheel sets have been sent to Swindon for the tyres and crankpins to be turned. From markings on the wheels, it would appear that these wheels were originally on 1631. Work on the boiler is concerned with new flue ends and a new smoke box, and a start is being made on the valve gear. The general mechanical condition is good.
Following a successful Friends of Thomas weekend at Easter time 1993, the decision was taken to restore 31874 as No.5 "James the Red Engine". This was very successful in bringing families to the line and, even though some purists may have been upset, the benefits were such that, in just four days of operation, the overhaul of 31874 was paid for and there was money to spare for other projects. More recently, the N has been on loan to Loughborough for a similar Thomas event. The opinions of Loughborough staff, regarding the glorious scarlet livery, are not recorded but it is known that the N impressed by its low water usage.
Urie
S15 No.30506 has been in use recently. At the end of a visit by No.70000
"Britannia" on a main line special, the S15 was
coupled up to the front to double head the train out. It is reported that
the S15 was pulling "Britannia" as well as the
train and that the noise from the chimney was awe inspiring.
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The response to the fund raising letters by Messrs. Tim Bridle and Nick Manton in Newsletter No.28 has been less than expected, but Mr. R.I.Clothier of Hastings, East Sussex has taken up the idea of paying for a footplate trip.
Dear Mr.Hawkins,
Congratulations on your Newsletter, a super job.
I was particularly taken with Nick Manton's letter and whilst I suspect that it may not be quite so simple to arrange such schemes, I do think the ideas are worth pursuing.
Whilst I have been an "armchair" member of the Society for many years, I am by nature a reticent character and rarely have the courage to introduce myself or enter the workshop when visiting the railway and would therefore never dream of asking for a ride.
I would jump at the chance of shelling out £40 for a trip on the footplate of 847 and would probably save up for more.
Perhaps in your next Newsletter you could "sound out" the membership with a simple questionnaire to see if it would be viable.
On a different subject, Mr. Malcolm Millichip of Richmond, Surrey has written to question one of the mileage figures in the last Newsletter.
Dear Mr.Hawkins,
Congratulations on producing an excellent Maunsell Newsletter (No.28). I was interested to see the review of locomotive mileages run but one figure may be open to question.
In 1982, I have seen it recorded that the U Class ran 1,511 miles and that the figure of 1,101 was in fact run by the Schools Class that year. I wonder if a slight error has been made and, if so, it may be worth correcting in a future Newsletter.
Please keep up the good work; I always find the news most interesting.
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If you live at some distance from the Bluebell Railway, have you ever thought of publicising the Society in your area? Part of a letter written to Rodney Packham by Mr.G.Stevens of Helston, Cornwall is an example of what can be done.
Dear Mr.Packham,
I have been trying to do my bit as far as I can at this distance; my 4mm model of "Sir Bors de Ganis" has been shown at various exhibitions in this area, advertising the Maunsell Society and the 830 project. The model will hopefully be completed and running at the Truro Model Railway Exhibition in a couple of weeks time (this was written in March - Ed.). With regard to the discussion on the eventual identity of the loco, I have to admit that I favour "Sir Bors de Ganis" considering the origin of the boiler and the fact that she served in my childhood home area - I probably saw her at Gillingham level crossing.
Once she is up and running perhaps consideration could be given to the construction of an alternative cab and tender, or swap, to represent "King Arthur" himself. Obviously the end result of the project will be a wonderful flagship for the Society, not to put down any other locos. After that, a W, Z or Ll? Or perhaps a takeover bid for 850?
AGM DATEWe propose to hold the 1994 AGM on Sunday 14th August, in the classroom in the car park at Sheffield Park Station. We would like to make a start at 10.00. All members will be most welcome. |
Thanks are due to all contributors, to Jon Elphick for his help with sundry printing jobs (in particular, the printing of the accounts) and to our printers, Impressions Printing Technology of Sevenoaks, Kent.
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30850 Lord Nelson at
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N Class 31849 at
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Early photograph of N Class
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