In this edition click to go further to:
Financial Matters or Restoration report or Maunsell Team part 1 or Sevenoaks- a reminiscence from 1929
| 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 |
EDITOR'S COMMENTAt a meeting of the Directors in February, it was decided to refer two of the matters discussed to you, the members of the Society. These two matters are a) cleaning parties for the Society's locos so that they are always a good advertisement for the Society, and b) changing the liveries of the Society's locos from time to time so that, over a period of time, each loco will be seen in each of the different liveries it carried in earlier days. Neither of these is a new subject for debate. They have both been aired in the past but I do not think that members have been asked for their views recently. So, now is your chance to show your interest, to have your say or whatever. You can write to me at the address above or, alternatively, you can put forward your views at the AGM. We would like to hear from you. In this edition of the Newsletter there is the start of a new series under the title "The Maunsell Team". This is, and will continue to be in future editions, concerned with the major personalities surrounding Maunsell from the time he joined the SECR until his retirement from the Southern Railway in 1937. Peter Jessop has written in a style which is a far cry from stodgy history. Please let me know your views. IAN HAWKINS |
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First of all I would like to thank all members for the good level of support received. This has enabled us to make two significant steps forward: 1) placing the fitting of the missing crank pin with an outside firm and 2) making progress with some of the motion forgings which are missing. By the time you read this, the wheel set with new crank pin fitted will have returned to the Park, and two return cranks and two radius rods will have been received. Although the target of rewheeling 1638 before the end of 1994 was missed, nevertheless good progress has been made in many areas. With your continued support, this rate of progress will be maintained, and even improved, now that the better weather is here. Call in at Sheffield Park soon and see for yourself. 847 is back in traffic without needing any major attention. It is running well and is expected to see considerable use during the Summer. Finally, in this edition of the Newsletter you have been notified of the 1995 AGM date. I look forward to seeing you there. RAY BELLINGHAM |
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Enclosed with this Newsletter you will find a set of accounts for 1994. As mentioned in the last edition, it was a good year for the Society. Total income was in excess of £6,000 and, with the cash reserves that were available, it was possible to spend over £6,300 on the restoration of 1638. Overall, approximately £7,400 was spent which still left just under £3,000 in the bank. 1995 has started well on the financial side. At the end of April, the Society had received just over £3,000 and spent about £1,400. At the same point last year we had only received £2,100 and spent £1,940. So thank you very much to all those who responded so well to the appeal for funds in the last edition. At the time of writing this article, the Society has approximately £4,600 in its accounts. However due allowance needs to be made for £600 that will be paid for machining the axle boxes, about £700 for the cost of fitting the crank pin (and transport), plus about £1,000 we will owe for the motion forgings that are being ordered via the Mid Hants Railway. When our outstanding commitments are taken into account that leaves about £2,300 spare. STEVE PILCHER |
Up to the time of writing, membership renewals have been very good. There are still some which are outstanding however and I will be looking closely at these very soon. In conclusion, I would like to remind all members that any change of address should be notified to me so that records can be kept up to date.
As
the warmer weather has at last arrived (well, reputedly anyway), so more
of the jobs on 1638 are of the outdoor variety. Winter jobs, like the
steps and step backing plate, are now complete, and attention has shifted
back outside to the yard. The deafening row of needle guns is being heard
once again as the cavity in the frames, underneath where the smokebox
would normally be, is cleaned up (most people hear cuckoos in Spring, we
hear needle guns!). This is a particularly dirty, dusty job but it has to
be done. Similar needle gunning has been performed in the nooks and
crannies around the backs of the cylinder castings.
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As these jobs take place, the removal of bolts large and small is required. I'm sure that you don't need to be a mechanical genius to appreciate the difficulty of removing some of these which have not been touched for a very long time, have endured many years at Barry and a few more in the sidings at Bluebell. Stud and bolt removal is set to become something of a speciality over the forthcoming weeks, I suspect!
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Main steam ducts
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Newly fabricated
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Particularly pleasing of late has been the sight of the pony truck ready for reassembly at last. The axle boxes have been whitemetalled (the main stumbling block) and all parts have been prepared and painted/greased for reassembly. Ray Bellingham has been busy fabricating the pony truck axle box under keeps. Hopefully, therefore, the next time that you pay a visit, you will be able to appreciate the first steps on the way back to the rebuilding of our locomotive.
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The latest situation regarding the main wheel sets is that a favourable quotation has been found for the fitting of the new crank pin. That's the good news!...... bad news is that the firm is in Durham! However, use of contacts produced a really good transport deal, so the wheels will have been done and on their way back by the time you read this.
Other behind the scenes, although essential, activities have been concerned with the collection of quotations for various forgings or processes best carried out off site. These will be needed as we progress through the Summer months. Rewheeling of the loco was clearly an over ambitious target for last year but we really are not that far away now. Besides working towards this target, work in other areas is progressing too. Ray Bellingham has fabricated some pieces for the drag box which now await riveting in place and a start has been made on reassembling the cylinder cladding. We even had some poor soul inside the smokebox with a hammer last Sunday, God bless him, removing the loose scale, the first real bit of attention the boiler has had to date.
I hasten to add that not all jobs are of this nature, in fact most of them can be coupled with the opportunity to improve your sun tan. So, see you down at the Costa Sheffield Park soon. 'Bye for now.
I can remember vividly a highlight of my youthful train spotting career - the day I was invited on to the footplate of a "Lord Nelson". That happened in May 1929 when I had just become a teenager.
In those days, Battersea (later Stewarts Lane) shed had only recently settled down to its full stud of nine "Nelsons" (Nos.E851-E859) for working the "Continental Expresses", together with a couple of "King Arthurs" as stand-bys. We schoolboys then knew nothing of the reservations in official quarters regarding the erratic performances of the "Nelson" design. To us these engines represented the acme of power and pride.
Often, I used not to take the direct roads home from school but walked with a fellow railway, and model railway, enthusiast friend as far as his home, and then continued by a route which led me past Sevenoaks (Tub's Hill) station. On this particular day, having left him, on going down the hill whence I had a view of the railway in the vicinity of the up side goods yard, I was very surprised to see the upper part of an unmistakable "Lord Nelson" proceeding slowly away from the station, light engine! It halted and reversed into the yard. I immediately turned round, ran most of the way back to my friend's house and breathlessly told him the news. He seized his Brownie Box camera and we hurried back down the hill.
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Sure enough, on the up through road in the station was a forlorn, engineless boat train. We crossed the road overbridge, hurried down the flight of steps into the goods yard and ran along the roadway between the sidings. There were one or two people about but none stopped us. Our identities were by then well known to the passenger department across the road, being allowed, blind-eyewise, free access to the platforms to do our spotting. We reached the locomotive at the outer end of the sidings; No.E852 "Sir Walter Raleigh", then with a six wheeled tender and without smoke deflectors. We quickly got into conversation with the engine crew, which was not the one which had brought the train up from the coast.
Throughout Southern Railway years between the wars, betwixt the 3.23 pm and 3.58 passenger trains from Tonbridge, a goods train from Ashford, invariably Mogul hauled, passed through and, on arrival at Sevenoaks, reversed into the up refuge siding (only removed in 1992) to permit the second of the passenger trains primarily a schools' train from Tonbridge to Orpington, access to the up platform road. The goods train then left at 4.46 for Hither Green via Otford and Chislehurst.
On this day, it was hauled by a 2-cylinder N class (the then lone 3-cylinder N1 was sometimes to be seen on it - from 1936 onwards it was always an S15) and this engine was commandeered, after exchanging crews, to head the "Continental". Thus, shortly after our arrival, shunting was heard nearer the station and thereafter the smaller locomotive came past us with a loud exhaust, valiantly accelerating its heavy train down the grade, its cleanliness not disgracing its enhanced importance.
We learned that the "Nelson" had developed a hot box (very unusually for the class) on Hildenborough bank, though we didn't discover which of the four likely ones, and would be "under the sheerlegs" at Battersea next day. We were then invited - great thrill - on to the footplate. My friend took several photos, prints of two of which I still possess.
Unfortunately, time was passing. My friend wanted his tea, whilst my mother would be (and was) anxious about my non-appearance, so regretfully, after the fireman had given his address for copy photos (somewhere off the Old Kent Road - they were Bricklayers Arms men; there was no Hither Green shed in those days), we gave our thanks and made our farewells. On passing over the road bridge, I noted that replacement motive power for the delayed goods train had already arrived from Tonbridge and been coupled on, in the form of a C class 0-6-0. The total elapsed time after the boat train had come to a stand could not have been more than an hour. In those times, emergency procedures seemed to take effect quicker than is the case today, the railway then being a much more flexible institution.
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One question I have been asked by members of the public on Sundays at the Bluebell is why am I a member of "Maunsell"?; why not the Gresley Society or the Stanier Society?. Easy that one, we are on Southern territory and Maunsell was, in my eyes, equal to the aforementioned designers, though in different ways as his brief from the SECR and then the Southern was totally different to that of designers of the larger concerns with their substantial long distance traffic and more limited suburban work.
With the Southern, I suppose that you are either a Bulleid or a Maunsell person. Although I find Maunsell designs aesthetically very pleasing to the eye, backed by the comforting thought that they work as well as they look, one of the reasons I am firmly in the Maunsell camp is because of the way he did things; he had a style that I can relate to, making him, to me, an interesting figure to study historically. Whilst Bulleid was very much an ideas machine, whose draughtsmen were there to turn his ideas into reality, Maunsell was a team man, always the boss, the team leader, but nevertheless someone with whom others could react. He reliably produced, time after time, useful designs on a shoestring budget, designs that were born from progressive development and team work.
So, who were the members of Maunsell's team? Well, I thought it would be interesting to do a little digging into these characters and write a kind of "potted history" about what they did, how they came to be there and hopefully what kind of people they were. I aim to get at something a little different which is not generally covered in the railway press. There are many historians who can tell the whole Maunsell story without pausing for breath! No..... I want to uncover a bit about those people Maunsell gathered around him when he joined the SECR and who stayed with him until his retirement in 1937. He sought their opinions, utilised or adapted some of their ideas and made them into a loyal, effective and productive force to be reckoned with.
Maunsell gathered around him key personnel and, not having found as many appropriate staff as he would have wished "in house", he tapped into the established rail centres of the UK (a kind of railway version of Kenny Dalglish in the present day footballing sphere). As his assistant, he brought in Pearson from the GWR at Swindon. The leading draughtsman was Clayton from the Midland at Derby. Holcroft was also brought in from Swindon to modernise the Ashford works originally and Hicks was the assistant works manager, having already been part of Maunsell's team at Inchicore, Dublin. Let's not forget that Maunsell was in charge of Carriage and Wagon as well as the locomotive side of the business. Warner (ex LSWR) was responsible to Maunsell for C & W matters until 1929 when his leading draughtsman Lynes (ex Swindon) took over. Apart from this one change, this team held together for 23 years!
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So where to start? Well, I must admit that I was lured by the name, so I would like to look first at Maunsell's coach designers and that means beginning with Surrey Warner. Now to my mind, if you can go through life with a name that sounds like a regional cinema and still be successful, then you must be alright! So who was he, what was he like, what did he do and why? Part 2 will reveal all!!
The accompanying photograph shows three N Class locos Nos.31846 (nearest the camera), 31837 and 31834 at Exmouth junction shed on 23/10/64. just over a year earlier, on 9/9/63, the Western Region had taken over this shed and the shed code had changed from the Southern Regions 72A to 83D. According to previously published information, all three locos, together with several other members of the same Class, were withdrawn by Western Region in September 1964.
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N Class locos 318,46,
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However, it is now known that the last workings of these three locos were in October 1964. On 22/10/64, 31846 worked the 5.35 a.m. freight to Torrington and 31834 the 6.30 a.m. freight to Barnstaple. A day earlier, on 21/10/64, No.31837 had worked the 6.47 a.m. freight to Yeoford and had then worked to Wadebridge. All three locos were back on Exmouth junction shed on the night of the 22nd. and the axe finally fell on the N Class in the West Country at midnight on 22/10/64.
Members may be forgiven for thinking that, with all the current effort going into the restoration of 1638, the Society's fifth project might be suffering from neglect. In fact, this is not so. David Pinkess has been busy in recent weeks painting 830's boiler thereby arresting any further deterioration in its condition.
Flushed with the delights of an April trip down to Hastings with "Sir Lamiel", Felix Cope will again be running a stall on behalf of the Society at the Bluebell Swapmeet which is to be held at Horsted Keynes on July 22nd/23rd. This venue has always been a very good source of income to the Society thanks to the efforts of Felix and his helpers but they need your support in the form of railwayana etc. Gifts can be left at Sheffield Park c/o Ray Bellingham or Felix can be contacted at "Feldor", Grassy Lane, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 1PL (phone 01732 451487).
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We propose to hold the 1995 AGM on Sunday 16th July, in the classroom in the car park at Sheffield Park Station. We would like to make a start at 10.00. All members will he most welcome. |
It is pleasing to note that in 1995 "Sir Lamiel" has put in some very good runs with special trains to Bognor, Littlehampton and Portsmouth in March and Eastbourne, Hastings in April. Such runs over the third rail, and in daylight hours would have been unthinkable a matter of months ago. So what can one say? Congratulations to all those involved in organising and operating the trips; they have been a great pleasure to all those who travelled on them. If you have not had the pleasure of a run on the Southern yet with "Sir Lamiel", then take the opportunity to go soon.
Meanwhile, as this edition goes to press, we understand arrangements have been confirmed for "Sir Lamiel" to visit the Bluebell Railway for a five week period at the end of July and throughout August. It will be interesting to see 30777 and our own 847 together. Will this be the first time in preservation that an N15 and S15 have got together?
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The March 1995 edition of "Railway World" contained an excellent article by Steve Pilcher under the title "Forward with the Maunsell Locomotive Society". After briefly describing the Society's activities up to the completion of S15 No.847, Steve went on to describe, in some detail, the relative merits of either 1638 or 830 being the next restoration project and why 1638 was chosen. Such articles are useful in keeping us in the public eye (a new life member felt encouraged to join after reading about our activities and plans for the future). We'd like to thank "Railway World" and Handel Kardas for publishing the article and for the fee which went to the Society.
On March 15th., David Jones gave a talk about the Society to the Sussex Transport Interest Group based in Brighton. Entitled "From Scrap to Steam", the first half of the talk traced the story of the three constituent groups that came together to eventually form the Maunsell Locomotive Society, and the restoration from Barry condition of Nos.1618, 541 and 847. After the tea break, the current project to restore No.1638 was described plus the long term plan to convert No.830 into a "King Arthur". Slides of other Maunsell designs which are not preserved, such as the W and Z classes, were shown together with shots of "Stowe", "Lord Nelson" and "Sir Lamiel".
Talks have always been a useful form of publicity for the Society so, if anyone knows of any suitable venues, please contact either Rodney Packham or Steve Pilcher.
Inside the rear cover of Newsletter No.30 a photograph was published of N Class 31821 on a passenger train at an unknown location. This generated a small amount of correspondence and, eventually, Norman Simmons, the photographer, wrote to me saying that the publication of the photo had prompted him to delve into his old notebook for 1957. The date was 14/7/57 (not 20/7) and the photo was taken at Ramsgate. The train was the 5.01 p.m. arrival from Victoria which checks out against the headcode. At this time the locomotive was shedded at 74C Dover.
Armed with this information, your Editor (who lives only 20 miles away but had not recognised the location!!) visited Ramsgate as he was intrigued by the buildings visible in the background of the photograph. Sure enough, there is a four arch bridge over a major road just before Ramsgate station when approaching from the direction of Dumpton Park. And the buildings in the background? They are part of St. Lawrence College after which "Schools" Class No.934 was named.
We were sorry to hear of the death in March of Mr. A. P Dowley at the age of 84. He was a notable photographer and was kind enough to allow the Society the use of some of his photographs taken in the 1930s. Several of his photographs graced the centre spread of Society Newsletters in the late 1980s and early 1990s. We extend our condolences to his family.
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Mr. Alan Gosling has written on the subject of allocations and sightings of 31638 from 1948 onwards. This subject is also being researched by Mr. Peter Cupper whose contribution will be published in a future issue. Mr. Gosling writes:
Dear Mr. Hawkins,
I notice that issue No.30, of the Newsletter mentions 31638. I consulted my own personal records and found the following items:-
| 1. Allocations. | From 1948 onwards, 31638 was allocated to Faversham (73E), Gillingham (73D), Redhill (75B), Brighton (75A), Eastleigh (71A), Redhill again, and Fratton (71D). |
| 2. Observations. | My first observation was on Fratton shed on 2/2/52 and then at Eastleigh station on 25/10/53 and 31/10/53. Next sighting was not until 26/8/59 at Tonbridge, then in Eastleigh works on 5/10/63 and finally at Guildford on 2/12/63. |
| 3. Photographs. | Photographic evidence consists of a) at Fratton shed (undated), at Eastleigh station on 30/1/54 and c) on Eastleigh shed on 21/4/56. |
31638 was easily detected in later days as it had its cabside numerals in a much higher position than all others in its class, and the tender lining was taken up to the top of the raves unlike all the others.
I hope these details are of some interest.
Mr. Frank White has written about converting 830 to a "King Arthur".
As one who "grew up" on the Southern Railway system and has had ever since an affection for Southern locomotive types, I would like to apply for membership of your Society.
My particular interest is in the proposal to build a replica of No.453 herself from the basics of S15 No. 830. I rather doubt that I shall be alive to see this plan come to fruition (if, indeed, it is adopted), but the idea is reasonable and also pleasant to contemplate. It gives, by the way, a new meaning to the inscription on King Arthur's legendary tomb - "HERE LIES ARTHUR: KING ONCE AND KING AGAIN TO BE"!
Mr. White also suggests "The Arthurion" as a title for the Newsletter and "King Arthur II" for the locomotive but asks if this is leaning too heavily towards this project?
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Thanks are due also to all contributors, to Jon Elphick for his help with sundry printing jobs (in particular, the printing of the accounts) and to Mike Coomber of Impressions Printing Technology of Sevenoaks, Kent, the printers of this Newsletter. |
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"King Arthur"
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U Class 31638 at Fratton shed (date unknown) |
[P. GROOM] |
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Q class 30534, of
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REAR COVER: 847 late in the afternoon |
[MIKE FRACKIEWICZ] |
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