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PRESIDENT

The Hon. Ralph Montagu

Front cover: In 1960 our Q Class was part of the complement of Bournemouth Shed. It was photographed at Bournemouth on 2lst February that year while resting between duties. Photograph Ray Vistucis collection.

Inside page

EDITORS CHAT

For the first time for many years, it was decided to enter the Society's Newsletter in the Heritage Railway Association's Publications Competition 2001. As usual, there were separate competitions for magazines and timetables and, within the magazine competition, there were awards for higher and lower circulations, the dividing line being 500 copies. We entered for the "Railway World Award" as our circulation was below the 500 mark.

Each entry was judged under the following five categories: style, content, layout, information to members and judges' choice. A maximum of 20 points could be awarded for each category (giving a maximum of 100 points per judge) and there were three judges so a perfect publication would result in a total of 300 points.

The runaway winners in our category were the group at Wallingford who scored 250 points for their "4247" magazine. In second place was the 8F Society's "Black Eight" magazine (214 points). We were in sixth place (out of eighteen listed) with 206 points.

I have gone on at some length about this creditable result because I wish to make a plea to all members to consider contributing suitable material to the Society's magazine. The next HRA competition is in 2003. With your continuing (or first time) input, we can do as well as, if not better than, in 2001. How about it?

Ian Hawkins

MEMBERSHIP MATTERS

Since the Summer Newsletter, the membership has increased by 3 new Life Members and 13 Annual Members. This increase has been due mostly to the leaflets displayed by 1638, some via the website and some by personal introduction. We have lost a few members and the total is now 320.

At the AGM it was agreed that the annual subscription should remain at £8, which will be due by the time this Newsletter comes out. If, when you send your subscription renewal cheque to me, you would send any notes that may be of interest for a future Newsletter, I will be pleased to give them to Ian Hawkins.

George Binns

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TREASURER'S REPORT

This has been another good year for fundraising and spending money. As we go to press the figures are as follows:-

In addition, I expect to have to pay out another £1,800 and earn another £500 by the end of the financial year.

As can be seen from the above figures, it has been an excellent year. In the past we have struggled to raise £10,000 in a year and this year we have raised almost £20,000.

So... what has all this fundraising achieved? It has ensured we were able to clear the debt on the purchase of Stowe, pay to complete the work on 1638's tender tank and get a good way down the road in overhauling Stowe's tender. These are all significant achievements. As ever, this is a tremendous credit to the generosity of the Society's membership and the depth of support from within the wider Bluebell membership to our appeals for help with Stowe. This year's fundraising has been the result of the many contributing something - we have not had to rely on a few giving large sums. This is a healthy sign.

I must in particular thank the 30 or so members who have agreed to contribute a monthly sum via the standing order system. In total this yields approximately £240 per month, equivalent to the best part of £3,000 per annum. It is very reassuring to have this regular inflow of funds in order to help plan what work we can tackle in the foreseeable future. I would once again ask members to consider

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signing up to however modest a sum per month - it is the one guaranteed way of ensuring we can buy some progress on the restoration of our locomotives.

It just remains to thank everyone who has helped this year. I have received some very touching letters from members with their donations. Rest assured, every contribution, whether large or small, does help and does make a difference.

Steve Pilcher

1638 RESTORATION REPORT

As we go to press, we are very pleased to announce that a mobile crane visited Sheffield Park on 29th November. As a result of this visit, Stowe's tender chassis has been taken apart and 1638's boiler placed on to a boiler trolley. This was a nice boost to round off what has been a good year on the locomotive overhaul side. To sum it all up, in 2001 we completed the construction of 1638's new tender tank, made rapid progress with work on Stowe's tender, started work on 1638's motion and are within sight of a start on the overhaul of 1638's boiler. As to the details:

1638

Some good news. Firstly, 1638's boiler is now on a boiler trolley and is ready to go into the works and, secondly, our Chairman, Ray Bellingham, has made a good start on the work required to machine the bushes and various other parts that are necessary in order to assemble 1638's motion. This is skilled work, in which Ray is very experienced, and we look forward to another one of his high quality jobs. To date the following has been achieved:-

The eight largest bushes white-metalled, machined to size and oil ways drilled.
Oil ways carefully drilled in the rods from the oil filler pots.
Oil pot filler caps made and sleeves machined to hold the oil wicks in the oil pots.

As regards the tender, a new (wooden) cab floor has been assembled by Rodney Packham and, thanks to the efforts of David Jones, the sides are now adorned with lettering and numbers. The tender will be re-painted when the locomotive is complete (to ensure a matching finish). Meanwhile, it is stored under cover behind Stowe but they cannot be coupled up as the drag boxes are set at different heights. The project was co-ordinated by Melvyn Frohnsdorff and Paul Thorp and, for the record, the names of all those who put in so much time to see the job through to completion are:- Clive Bean, John Edwards, Mike Gibbins, Frank

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Glue, Ian Hawkins, Peter Jessop, David Jones, Heidi Mowforth, Rodney Packham, Steve Pilcher, Paul Skinner, Barry Smith and Jim Thomas. Apologies to anyone I may have inadvertently left out.

The late afternoon November sunshine highlights, to good effect, the recent additions of lettering and numbers to 1638 's tender tank. The tender was briefly standing outside when photographed by Melvyn Frohnsdorff

847

Rodney Packham and Mike Frackiewicz have continued to keep the locomotive looking presentable out in the yard but little further progress is possible until its turn comes to be dismantled for full overhaul.

Stowe

The main reason for sending out a News Sheet in the Autumn was to let members know that the Sunday gang had started work on Stowe's tender. As mentioned in the News Sheet, there was dramatic progress as regards dismantling the tender body, which soon disappeared. The Sunday gang have certainly grasped the nettle and things have moved on rapidly since then.

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The main tasks undertaken in the Autumn were freeing up the old front dragbox, fabricating parts for a new dragbox, and cleaning and painting most of the inside of the frames. The lifting of the tender frames on 29th November was a major boost for the gang and is another big step forward for the project. We must thank Keith Sturt for arranging the lift. It was a very dismal wet day, which made it all a bit trying for those involved, but nevertheless quite a number of jobs around the yard were successfully tackled. We now have the wheelsets out for examination and the work required to tyres, journals, axleboxes etc. can be assessed. The old wasted front dragbox will soon be removed and it will then be possible to clean up the rest of the inside of the frames that were not accessible before.

Melvyn Frohnsdorff and the restoration team have been busy making the necessary parts to form the new front drag box that is required. The work includes:-

Cutting to shape a new front dragbox bufferbeam from 7/8" plate and drilling and tapping (where required) over 40 holes for riveting etc. This job had to be done accurately and was therefore quite time consuming but it is now complete - see photograph.

New platework for the top, bottom and rear of the dragbox has been cut to shape from 3/8" plate and the edges have been ground to shape to allow angles to be welded on. The next phase is for these parts to be riveted together to form the new front dragbox.

The next job will be to cut out a wasted area of platework, on the side of the frames, at the front, and make up a new part to be welded in. This will be quite a skilled job but will ensure that we have a robust and strong tender chassis that will need minimal maintenance work for some considerable time. Melvyn has also freed up the old drag box by cutting out and removing more than 100 rivets. This took over four days and was a very unpleasant task.

The regular Sunday gang have also been needle gunning and painting all accessible inside parts of the frames that are going to be retained. Phil Gain has put in some stalwart work on grit blasting a whole collection of parts that have been removed and which will be re-instated in due course, e.g. vacuum cylinders. All the parts have been painted up and are now in store.

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Stowe s new tender front buffer beam begins to take shape under the watchful eye of Melvyn Frohnsdorff Photograph by Steve Pilcher.

In the Autumn News Sheet, we described how we had found various clues indicating that major repair work to the right hand side of Stowe's tender body had taken place at some stage and we asked whether anyone knew about such major work. Member Peter Cupper has referred us to page 34 of the RCTS publication "Locomotives of the Southern Railway Part 1" by D L Bradley. On this page there is a description of Eastbourne being damaged at New Cross on 15th June 1941 having run into an over-bridge that had been hit by enemy bombing. Locomotive and tender were severely damaged and both were under repair at Eastleigh from June to December of 1941. It is possible that this was the incident that caused damage to the tender that is now with Stowe but there is a difficulty in that the 1941 damage is described as being to the left hand not the right hand side. If you have any other knowledge to add, we would appreciate hearing from you.

We also mentioned in the News Sheet that two front steps and the part of the tender tank with the number on were available if anyone wanted to purchase and take away. To date we have had one very generous donation for one set of steps, which are now believed to be forming an elegant back door boot scraper somewhere in SW London. Please contact us if you would like to make an offer for a bit of the tender side or the other steps. This is your last chance to buy part of a genuine "Schools" Class tender. Don't delay - the scrap metal skip beckons!!

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We were very pleased to receive over 80 responses to the Stowe tender tank appeal leaflet, circulated with the last Bluebell News, and to date this has raised well over £2,000 - a very useful sum for the advancement of this project. I wish to thank, once again, all those who have responded so generously. The whole project to rebuild the tender will cost approximately £8,000. If you have not already helped with this appeal, can we ask you to consider assisting with a modest donation to ensure we can get the job finished as quickly as possible. Cheques should be made payable to the Maunsell Locomotive Society Limited and sent to the Treasurer (address inside front cover).

And finally, it just remains for me to thank all those who have helped either physically or financially to support the Society's work. There is plenty going on with our projects and there is still ample work for anybody who would care to join us, be you skilled or unskilled. Please just come along on a Sunday and find our group. Best wishes for the New Year.

Steve Pilcher

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2001

Eighteen members, including Directors, were present at the Society's AGM on Sunday 5th August. There was a review of current projects and a discussion of a wide range of other topics. Minutes of the meeting were circulated with the Autumn News Sheet.

PUBLICITY

I must thank Colin Tyson, Editor of Bluebell News, for his continued support in publishing our quarterly contribution. It helps publicise our projects to the wider Bluebell membership and has paid considerable dividends in terms of fundraising - please see Treasurer's Report. Tony Streeter, of "Steam Railway", has also helped our cause twice this year, latterly with an article illustrating the work that took place to build the new tender for 1638 (we received a three-page write up).

Steve Pilcher

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Pages 8&9

FOND MEMORIES OF THE SOUTH WESTERN 4-6-0s PART 2

The massive H15s of the 484-491 series were my particular favourites. High arched Urie cab roofs and huge tenders dwarfed the crews, making them feel like mortals who had strayed into the halls of the Olympian Gods. They were men controlling a veritable juggernaut as it crashed and thudded along the main line. Their boilers were high pitched and 5' 6" in diameter, boxes were provided so that the men could reach the injector steam valve. The cab roof was 13' 2" above rail height. The smaller N15s, H15s and S15s were somewhat lighter but of the same family, and all of them did nothing on less than full open regulator and almost everything on 25% cut off. They could all be fired on dust over the half door flap for mile after mile.

So the trip with Brian had been a swan song for the South Western style 4-6-0s and a moment of recaptured skill for me. We had reached 74 mph at Byfleet, something of a record for an S15. Norman Harvey of "Railway World" featured the run in an issue of the magazine.

You didn't have to dash along to know bliss in the cab of one of these locomotives. One of my favourite turns was the 12.45 am freight from Nine Elms yard to Basingstoke. In 1957 Jim Dawson had started to teach me the art of firing on this turn, 76 duty down and 74 duty up. We signed on at 12.l5 am each morning and took charge of one of the heavy Hl5s (486, 484 or 487) that had been "half soled and heeled" and left for us in the corner of the shed or on the stores road. Notices read and tea made, we ran light engine while struggling to see over the huge tender as we threaded through the narrow archway to the upside freight yard. Here we coupled on to a longish train of between 600 and 730 tons and, at the appointed time of 12.45am, departed for the nightly trip to Basingstoke. Jim would set the engine to maintain the pace needed for a steady run that would result in an on time arrival at 2.40am. I would set to work to feed the long grate with dusty Welsh coal for the two hour journey during which the regulator was never closed and was often fully opened. If the pressure fell back, Jim would never take hold of the shovel other than to use it to "part the flames" in order to examine the shape of the firebed. He would hand me the smoking shovel and say quietly:
"Throw a couple of shovels full halfway down my side and let her go for a bit." Or:
"Get the pricker, Clive, and just move that lump back into that low place, then fire all round the box." Or:
"Chuck a couple down the front." Or:

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"Don't put any more down the front for a bit!" He could have done it himself and many drivers found it easier to do just that. Jim was skilful enough to read the fire, find the weak spots and, after giving advice, judge - without appearing to have taken his eyes off the road ahead - whether the swing you had executed had delivered the fuel to the required spot.

"Have another go, that one ended up under the brick arch." Mystified, I would have another go. And the fire would get hotter and hotter, the stars would swing around the Pole Star above and the steam would pass in a flame lit procession over the coal in the great dark tender and over the half glimpsed vans and wagons that trailed back and back to the faint white lights of the guard's brake van.

We were not bombarded with dust or chips of coal during those runs. I kept the floor spotless with frequent brushings, I sprayed the coal and held a cloth in my hands so that the shovel and coal pick were clean and polished, not sticky or dirty as they would have been had I worn gloves. Nobody wore gloves. We drank tea from our single tea can and enjoyed the waggle and thump from two large cylinders out there in the darkness ahead.

The return run, also on a large H15 (491 very often), was a different kettle of fish. Nine coaches to whisk back to London, stopping all stations to Woking, then Surbiton, Malden and Waterloo. Jim had to flog the engine all the way as a carter would have flogged a carthorse in the days before steam. When the wide-open regulator was slammed shut on the very portals of each station these brutes would practically stand on their noses with the internal resistance that had to be overcome before a train was moved! Just as on the "epic" run with 30843, conditions in the cab would be chaotic. At 8.l0am we would run down into Waterloo and hand over our mount to the relieving crew. Commuters streamed by seldom glancing in our direction as I cleared coal away from the low cab doors so as to get home to bed.

When the H15s were withdrawn and scrapped, by which time I was a driver myself, the S15s came to be used on 76 duty. My regular firemen, first Len Butler then Brian French, would sometimes meet me in the "William Shakespeare" for a couple of pints at Victoria before closing time. We would then walk down to Vauxhall Bridge and along to Nine Elms to book on and take over the engine. They both became clean and skilful firemen using Jim Dawson's handed down techniques. On summer mornings, the sky behind us in the East would grow lighter as we neared the end of our trip. It was a small fire-lit world that we shared each night. The air was cold and clean as the countryside re-appeared, grey and mist shrouded, and the darkness fled westward ahead of us.

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The up trips were by now performed with greater ease using Bulleid Pacifics or Standard Class 5s. It was still an exhilarating dash with nine coaches, but until the trip of May 20th 1964 I had almost forgotten the "delights" that lay in store when those old "chonkers" were fully extended.

Clive Groome

MAUNSELL'S TENDERS - PART 2

The next complication was that the last 5 "Nelsons" (Nos. E861-E865) were built with 4000 gallon 6-wheeled tenders with set-in tops, which went to "Schools" (V) Class 4-4-0s Nos. E900-E904, whilst the first 10 "Schools" were built with 5000 gallon straight-sided bogie tenders, which went to the new "Nelsons" and to five of the "King Arthurs" with 6-wheeled tenders. In their turn, these "King Arthurs" exchanged their newly acquired ones with the Urie tenders off "Nelsons" Nos. E852/3 and E858-E860. Thus, at last, there was some rationalisation, in that the 16 "Nelsons" were all equipped with all the straight-sided bogie tenders. The 5 6-wheeled tenders, no longer needed behind "King Arthurs", had their tops turned in and went behind "Schools" Nos. E905-E909. These set-in tops were to accord with the cab profile of the narrow loading-gauged "Schools". To complete this side of the story, in 1936 10 more S15s (Nos.838-847) were built with straight-sided bogie tenders and these additions provided sufficient members of the Class for them to take over the heaviest Central Section freight duties, for which, of course, 6-wheeled tenders were necessary, so the remaining S Eastern Section "King Arthurs" swapped with S15s Nos. 833-837, with the result that, once again, all the "Scotchmen" had Urie type bogie tenders. Finally, regarding bogie tenders, when in 1934, conversion began of the Brighton Baltic tanks to N15X 4-6-0 tender locomotives, they were given tenders from Urie S15s Nos. 504-5 10, which, in their turn, took Drummond water-carts from withdrawn C8 Class 4-4-0s.

Reverting to the 3500 gallon tenders, 15 had been provided by contractors with the L1 Class 4-4-0s in 1926 (Nos. A753-A759 & A782-A789). Then 41 were constructed in 1928/29, before the decision was made to standardise on the 4000 gallon model. Fourteen of these were purchased from contractors for the rebuilding of the 21 "River" Class 2-6-4Ts as 2-6-0s (20 Class K and one Class K1 to U and U1 - Nos. A790-A809 & A890 respectively), the other 7 being taken from N Class locomotives (presumably undergoing repair) until they could be replaced by new ones built locally. The other 20 were for U Class 2-6-0s (A610-A629) built as such, although they had originally been authorised as 2-6-4Ts.

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What turns would have been available for such a large number of short-distance medium power locomotives is anybody's guess, and, although names had already been chosen for them, there is reason to believe that the decision to construct them as tender engines had already been taken before "Sevenoaks" put paid to the "Rivers".

The next tenders to be constructed were the last 5 straight sided 4000 gallon ones for the 1930 batch of N1 2-6-0s (Nos. A876-A880). These were the first to be constructed to fit the Eastern Section buffing gear, which required the front end of the frame to be raised, necessarily continued with all the remaining 2-6-0s, although those were to have turned-in tops, reputed to give engine crews a better lookout to the rear. There were to be 45 of them: 10 Us (Nos. A630-A639) and 20 U1s Nos. A891-A900 & 1901-1910) in 1931, and 15 Ns in 1932-1934 (Nos. 1400-1414). They were all identical and, like all but 14 of the 3400 gallon variety, fitted for right hand drive.

During the first half of the Thirties, 30 more straight-framed examples of this tender, with the now standard set-in tops, were constructed for the additional "Schools" Class engines (Nos. 910-939). Some, if not all, of these had disc wheels instead of the traditional spoked ones.

In 1936, the year before Maunsell's retirement, 20 0-6-0s of Q Class were authorised (Nos. 530-549), but once again, the 20 tenders ordered with them were not intended to go behind them. They were all 4000 gallon ones, nominally to run behind U Class 2-6-0s Nos. l610-1629, although some of the ex-"Rivers" later came to have them. However, once again, there was a twist to the story. In 1932, the decision had been made that all future locomotive construction should have left hand drive, as Eastleigh designs had done for many years, whereas Ashford had continued to turn out right hand drive engines. Thus, the last 8 N Class, Nos. 1407-1414, were constructed with left hand drive, but no-one had arranged for the tenders to be built to accord, so 8 of this 1937 batch of tenders were provided for left hand drive and fitted to the Ns, the cast-offs going to U Class engines. The 3500 gallon tenders recovered from the Us were altered to suit the left hand drive of the Qs.

Lastly, some of the Urie bogie tenders and all of the straight-sided bogie ones had vacuum storage cylinders behind the coal space. It is believed that all the "Scotchmen" tenders were so fitted.

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Here ends the story of the Maunsell tenders, with a summary given below, showing the eventual usage in Southern Railway days.

*straight sided

Arthur Ll. Lambert

SWAPMEET 2001 AND OTHER EVENTS

Our main volunteer effort these days is focused on working on the locomotives. Nevertheless, for the past few years, Paul Skinner and Steve Pilcher, with occasional support from others, have had a go at selling on books and other items donated to the Society and this year ran a stand at the Bluebell Swapmeet in July and the Giants of Steam event. This raised a very useful £190.

Paul has also put together a very good selection of material regarding the work of the group that can be displayed on panels kindly donated by George Binns. The display was erected at Giants of Steam in October and inspired such favourable interest that we are minded to "have a go" on a number of other occasions next year at Sheffield Park.

One of these is likely to be "Local History Week", a nation wide event scheduled to take place from 4 May to 12 May 2002. At the time of writing these notes, only initial details were known but, for those of you with access to the Internet, the unfolding story may be found at www.history.org.uk, the home page of The Historical Association. Clicking on the Local History Week logo will take you through to the main Local History Week Menu.

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STOCK BOOK

Following the purchase of Stowe it seemed appropriate to write up some of the basic facts about the five locomotives the Society is responsible for, e.g. where and when built, known shed allocations, dates restored to working order, mileage run on the Bluebell etc. We have now put together an A5 sized booklet, with two pages and a photograph for each locomotive in either SR or BR service, and it is now available to the membership.

Quite a bit of time has been committed to writing up the booklet and checking the facts - hopefully we have got all the main details correct. I am grateful for assistance freely given by David Jones, Ian Hawkins, Peter Cupper and Mike Frackiewicz in reviewing the text. There is a limit to what you can write up in two pages of A5 format - nevertheless it will act as the definitive source of basic factual information. At some point in the future, it is planned to use it as a starting point for an enlarged A4 sized book on the locomotives, similar to that which the Camelot Society produced after Camelot returned to traffic.

Copies of the booklet are available by post from the Treasurer - see address list inside front cover - at a cost of £1.50 including p&p. Please make cheques payable to the Maunsell Locomotive Society Limited. A free copy will be sent to anyone who makes a donation of £10 or more following receipt of this magazine. The booklet has been produced at no cost to the Society, so all sales will clearly help the cause.

VANNA VIDEOS AND 847

Regular readers of the monthly magazines and Bluebell News may well have spotted reviews of Vanna Videos who are producing a series of videos covering the histories of preserved ex-SR locomotives. The latest one, "The A to Z of Preserved Locomotives of the Southern Railway Part 2", includes the preserved Maunsell S15s, Lord Nelson and Sir Lamiel. It has approximately 60 minutes featuring the Society's S15 No.847. The reviews have been favourable and I have certainly found it enjoyable and can recommend it.

We are able to supply copies of the above video for £15.95 including p&p - if you would like a copy, please send a cheque to the Treasurer - see enclosed leaflet.

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The proprietor of Vanna Video, Syd Carroll (who is a Bluebell member), is putting together the next video which will include material on the preserved Q, U and "Schools" Classes as well as Bulleid locomotives. If you have any suitable archive film or clear sharp photographs of any of these locomotives in SR/BR service that you are prepared to lend Syd, please contact him at 67 Sidney Road, Borstal, Rochester, Kent ME1 3HG. He is offering to provide a free copy of the next video to anyone whose material he uses.

Letters relating to previous newsletters have been held over to next issue.

Some time in 1947, Z Class No. 951, of Hither Green Shed, was undergoing repair in Eastleigh Works. Behind the Z was 21C119 Bideford. Photograph Ray Vistucis collection.

FINALLY

My thanks, as always, to all contributors to this Newsletter for making my job such an easy one. My thanks also to Mickle Print Ltd. of Canterbury, Kent, our printers.

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