This is not a happy story!. The good bit
is that 830 survives and gets attention sufficient to ensure that there is no
further decline in her condition; a holding operation. If you wish, click here to go direct to:
Technical Specification or 830 in Southern Railway and BR service
This is not a happy story!. The good bit
is that 830 survives and gets attention sufficient to ensure that there is no
further decline in her condition; a holding operation.
She was bought by Maunsell member David Jones with a view, originally to supplying spares for 847. She was rescued from Woodhams scrapyard at Barry in September 1987, the 192nd engine to leave the yard. As there were only 213 engines to be rescued, you can imagine that there are 1 or 2 problems with her. Among these are
830 has resided at
Sheffield Park on the Bluebell from the outset, after purchase. There have been
many ideas regarding 830. The leading example of this was to convert 830 to a
King Arthur class engine as only the national collections Sir Lamiel
No.777 survives. Also 830 has the boiler that once belonged to No.763 Sir
Bors De Ganis This would require new frames to be made as we would also
need new wheel sets. This depletes our starting list somewhat and the cost
would be horrendous. Also we are making a replica not restoring an engine by
doing this. This plan has been dropped. 830 was to be restored after 1638, as
830, an S15 engine. At a special meeting during 1996, it was resolved to buy
830 from David Jones, for a very reasonable £5000, that's less than scrap
value, with a 6 wheel tender thrown in for good measure. The Society then owned
the loco, for resources to be allocated in years to come with confidence.
Subsequent meetings to discuss 830 felt that the project was too big for us at this time, with 4 other engines to look after, and it was resolved to sell her. This was not a decision taken lightly, but was done with the interests of the engine in mind. Someone else could have the chance to restore her within a respectable timespan. When an offer came in, it was coincidental that the chance to buy Stowe, a complete and prestigious engine came up. What was best for the engine then matched what was best for the society too, and the deal was done.
| Date built - | August 1927 | Weight of loco - | 79 tons 5 cwt |
| Length overall - | 65 ft 6¾ inches | Weight with tender - | 135 tons 13 cwt |
| Boiler pressure - | 200 p.s.i. | Coal capacity - | 5 tons |
| Water capacity - | 5,000 gallons | Driving wheel diameter - | 5 ft 7 ins |
| Overall Height - | 12 ft 11½ins | Overall width - | 9 ft 0 ins |
| No. of cylinders - | 2 | Cyl diameter and stroke - | 20½×28 inches |
| Valve gear - | Walschaerts | Tractive effort - | 29,857 lbs (at 85% pressure) |
When the Southern needed some express freight engines in 1926,
Maunsell had no qualms about updating and using Robert Uries S15 design. Why
not?.. it was a good one. 2 batches were made, one in 1927 of 15 engines, and
one in 1936 of 10 engines. 830 was in the first batch, and emerged from
Eastleigh works in August 1927.
Her first shed allocation was Salisbury, where she worked the south western main line. Almost all her working life was spent here. That's a span of 37 years. She was only reallocated once, going to Feltham, west London in January 1964. this though was just a precursor to withdrawal which came shortly after in July of the same year.
In 1930 she gained smoke deflectors (
along with most Maunsell engines at this time) and lost the "E" prefix to her
number. She was in lined out olive green at this time. In 1940 this changed to
unlined dark olive with Bulleid style lettering and in 1942 this became wartime
black. She stayed in unlined black for the rest of her working life.
During her 35 years, she clocked up 1.2 million miles on that main line to the south west. That represents good value I reckon on her initial construction price of £6,585.
Further information can be gained from info@maunsell.net
