The Barry Legacy

A month or two back when discussing a feature on the current state of affairs with the rebuild of ex-GWR 2-8-0T, 4270 with Ian Carpenter, it transpired that he possessed a sizable collection of photos of 4270 taken during the 28 years that her restoration had taken so far.  Those photos will feature in a later blog article.  The existence of these photos started me thinking that it would be a good idea to come up with an article covering her existence at Woodham Bros scrapyard in Barry Island and follow on with a series of articles relating to the restoration progress.  This thought process coincided with the publishing of a book on the history of Barry Island and its famed scrapyard by an internet contact of mine, Dr Peter Brabham who grew up near the yard and consequently has amassed a treasure trove of photos of the yard and the steam locos that were saved there.  Given that the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway is home to a number of locos that are resident or actively under rebuild that survived only because of the miracle of Barry Island scrapyard, I have decided to broaden the scope of this particular article and cover those locos too. 

Churchward 4200 class, 2-8-0T, number 4270
Power class:   E
Route Restriction:   Red
Tractive Effort:  31,450 lbf
Boiler Pressure 200 lbf/sq in
105 (wikipedia has that wrong) examples were built between 1910 & 1923, 4270 entering traffic in December 1919.  The class were principally designed to deal with short distance heavy coal trains from the Welsh valleys to the South Wales docks. Shed allocations included Slough & Ebbw Vale, both in 1945. 4270 was withdrawn in September 1962 and arrived at Barry Island scrapyard in August 1963.  She remained at Barry for 21 years and 11 months and became the 167th loco to be saved, leaving in July 1985 for the Swansea Valley Railway. 

This photo of her taken in 1975 at Barry Island shows her to be in externally at least a reasonable state.

Photo courtesy Dr Peter Brabham

This was about half way through her time at Barry and the '4270 Preservation Society' seem to have spent a bit of time smartening her up with a red primer.  Note she has no buffers and one of the coupling rods at least is stashed away in the bunker.  A couple of years later in September 1977, she was again photographed at Barry, this time in the company of Bulleid Light Pacific, 34028, Eddystone.

Photo courtesy Dr Peter Brabham

 The '4270 Preservation Society' seem to be making good progress, she's looking very smart compared to Eddystone with her top coat of paint on.  A set of buffers have been sourced from somewhere.  The connecting rod has disappeared from the bunker, but as she has all her original ones even now, they must have been stored somewhere for safe keeping.  Compare the previous two photos to this third shot taken in 1988, just a few years after she left Barry Island at the Swansea Valley Railway.

Photo courtesy Dr Peter Brabham

The green top coat of paint, is by now heavily faded.  The salt sea air at Barry has accelerated the rusting process and the bottom of the bunker and side tanks have been completely eaten through.  

As mentioned earlier, the story of the restoration of 4270 after Barry Island will be continued at a later date.

Bulleid Merchant Navy class, 35006, Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company
Power class:  8P
Tractive Effort:  33,490 lbf
Boiler Pressure 250 lbf/sq in  (as built 280 lbf/sq in)
Originally numbered 21C6 when introduced in December 1941 as the 6th locomotive of a class of 30, with an air smoothed casing, she was renumbered 35006 at the nationalisation of the railways and rebuilt in 1959 as a more conventional locomotive.  In 1948 she was shedded at Salisbury.  She was withdrawn by BR in August 1964 entering Barry in December 1964.  She remained at Barry for 18 years and 3 months, leaving in March 1983 as the 144th loco to be saved.

Photo courtesy Dr Peter Brabham

I could only find this one photo of 35006 at Barry.  Subsequent to this photos, she lost her tender to another preservation group, so the one that she is has at the moment needed to be built from scratch. The smoke deflectors and smoke box appear to have received a little attention, but the rest is in a very sorry state.

Whilst normally not on view in the David Page shed at Toddington, both 4270 and 35006 will be on display in the car park at Toddington during the Cotswold Steam Celebration Gala at the end of this month.  You will be impressed by how much both have improved since the photos above were taken.

Moving on to our already restored and in service locos:

Churchward 2800 class, 2-8-0 number 2807
Power class:   E
Route Restriction:   Blue
Tractive Effort:  35,380 lbf
Boiler Pressure 225 lbf/sq in
Of a class of 84 locomotives, 2807 was the eighth built at Swindon, released into traffic in October 1905.  The class was principally used for long haul freight traffic.  2807's 1948 shed was Hereford and she was withdrawn on 31st March 1963 after nearly 58 years of service from Severn Tunnel Junction.  She arrived at Barry Island in November 1963 and departed after 17 years and 7 months in June 1981 as the 130th loco to leave Barry.

These two photos were taken of her in 1968, less than 5 years after arriving:

Photo courtesy of Pete Hackney

Photo courtesy of Pete Hackney

 Although 2807 at this time is lacking a tender, she is surprisingly otherwise complete.  Much of the motion is present, along with the copper injector feed pipes and the safety valve cover.

This undated later photo of her in Barry shows her to be in a very sorry state, the motion is completely missing, including pistons and valve gear.  The boiler cladding has gone, probably relating to the removal of asbestos in the yard and also the chimney & safety valve cover have disappeared.

Photo courtesy Dr Peter Brabham

You have to marvel at the amount of work that the Cotswold Steam Preservation Group needed to put in to return her to this sort of condition:

2807 last year at WInchcombe

Hawksworth 6959 Modified Hall class, 4-6-0 number 7903, Foremarke Hall
Power class:   D
Route Restriction:   Blue
Tractive Effort:  27,270 lbf
Boiler Pressure 225 lbf/sq in
Of a class of 71 locos designed by Hawksworth as a development of Collett's 4900 Hall class, which were in turn a development of Churchward's 2900, Saint class.  Foremarke Hall entered service in April 1949, not long after the nationalisation of the railways. The Modified Halls were a mixed traffic class used for all kinds of passenger as well as freight services.  Initially shedded at Old Oak Common, Foremarke Hall ended her BR days on the 30th of June 1964 at Cardiff East Dock shed.  She arrived at Barry Island in August 1964 and left for preservation in June 1981 after 16 years and 10 months becoming the 129th loco to leave Barry.

This photo shows at least the cab part of 7903 in 1979 at Barry:

Photo courtesy Dr Peter Brabham

Instantly obvious are that the tender is missing along with the coupling rods on this side at least.  The boiler cladding is still in place, so presumably there is still asbestos present.  The tool tunnel is clearly visible though, which is more than can be said for the recent Bachmann OO gauge model which got sent back to China for correction.  

The following photos show her at Barry in around 1981 as she was being collected for preservation.

Photo courtesy John Cruxon/Foremarke Hall Group

Photo courtesy John Cruxon/Foremarke Hall Group

Photo courtesy John Cruxon/Foremarke Hall Group

Photo courtesy John Cruxon/Foremarke Hall Group

Note that she has acquired a tender in that last photo.  Again you have to marvel at the amount of work put in by the Foremarke Hall group in order to turn her into this:

Foremarke Hall, in 2005 on the Severn Valley Railway

 Hopefully in the not too distant future I'll be able to bring you finished photos of 4270 and 35006 as they enter service on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway.

Photos provided by John Cruxon and the Foremarke Hall Group, along with much more information can be found on the Foremarke Hall Group's website.

Photos provided by Pete Hackney can be found on his Flickr site, in particularly his set called Woodham's Scrapyard Barry 

Photos provided by Dr Peter Brabham can be found on his Flickr site and some of them are also in his excellent book Barry: The History of its Yard and Locomotives which I can recommend as being a thoroughly fascinating read (and yes I paid for my own copy).

I have no doubt that many will have read this with a view to informing me of the doubtless many glaring inaccuracies, or omissions.  Feel free to let me know what they are and I'll get them corrected.

And finally, off topic completely, but many thanks to Adrian Dorraine & Sean Nielsen I had an extremely enjoyable day out on the footplate of WD348 on Monday.  I was delighted to see that Brian Peacey's widow seems to have picked up where Brian left off, she was at the bottom of her garden waving to us each time we went past.  I'd like to think that this railway has brought some comfort to her in what is obviously going to be a difficult time for her.

Sun in the Cotswolds

Another Saturday, another loco to clean.  This week it was Foremarke Hall's turn to be out.  We've taken on another shipment of the Russian coal, which is more prone to create black smoke than the Welsh coal that we've been using lately.

Shiny copper capped chimney and black smoke

Once again, the path to the wood store is blocked

Trainee fireman Martin Ryan gives a hand with the cleaning

Driver Tony Stockwell takes a break from oiling up Foremarke Hall for a cup of tea

Firing Instructor Cliff Faulkner bought us all sausage & bacon rolls for breakfast, so as a reward for his kindness, I've let him off having to have his picture on the blog this week.  Should any other members of the steam loco dept wish avoid the embarrassment of appearing on this blog, you know what to do :-)

Foremarke Hall sets off under (and apparently floating on top of) her own steam

Next weekend is the 'Wartime in the Cotswolds' weekend. We've been encouraged to attend wearing suitable wartime attire.  This presents something of a problem as a fair number of our members who are more advanced in years don't possess any clothes as modern as that.  Derek's plan is to attend wearing his old footplate gear from when he was a BR fireman at Gloucester.  Derek still maintains his athletic build from those far off days of BR steam but sadly his footplate gear has shrunk in the wash over the intervening years.  He has had to resort to tying a red boot lace around his waist to hold the trousers up.

Neil and Mark admire Derek's old footplate attire

In the end Derek decided that modesty would be best preserved by sporting a prep coat on top.

Derek and his modesty preserving prep coat

 George has particular problems with the wartime weekend as he has long hair, which wasn't in fashion during the blitz.  He didn't appear to be too concerned about that though.

George, keeping calm and carrying on

You can't fail to have noticed that the weather for the last year or so has been dreadful. Not so on Saturday, the sun shone all day. This was therefore a perfect opportunity to catch up with all the outdoor painting jobs that had been put on hold.

Tim painted the yard gates with special security paint to deter unauthorised visitors

Dan de-rusted the metal posts that retain the concrete sleepers being used as walls for the new ash dock....

....and then he painted them

The mess coach refurb gang got into full swing finishing off the grey primer, and even getting on the first coat of the chocolate primer.  The colour of the chocolate primer is so convincing that several people had to be restrained from eating it.

Chris gets cracking with the chocolate flavoured coloured paint

If Derek stays there much longer, he'll get painted

Clive smoothing out the filler

Ian applying more filler

Tina resisting the temptation of eating the chocolate paint (just)

Nick wielding a paint brush

Part way through the painting of the mess coach, Foremarke Hall pulled out of Toddington station.  The effects of the Russian coal are only too obvious. The mess coach painting gang were aghast at this and even from where I was stood beyond the signal box I could hear words of discontent.

"Bother we'll get soot smuts on our wet paint"

The mess coach by the end of the day

It seems that Tina has become so proud of her mess coach refurbishment project that she has even put her name on it.

Tina's coach

I took a break from painting the mess coach after lunch as 2807 needed a warming fire in her in readiness for Sunday.  Now ordinarily this wouldn't have been a problem, but she was currently red-carded with a note saying "Condensing coils T cock" whatever that might mean.  Subsequent enquiries established that indeed works had taken place, but that now she was ready to have a warming fire put in her.  Ian Carpenter, the 'boiler responsible person' would however only sign off the work done in the morning when 2807 was in steam. So far so good.  Next to get 2807 shunted out of the shed and onto the pit (thanks Mark) and then start off the warming fire process. She failed the pre-check procedure by only having a quarter of a glass of water in the boiler.  I had visions of having to get her shunted out alongside the mess coach and running out fire hoses to the new RO water supply like we'd done last week with Foremarke Hall which would have upset the mess coach painting gang.  Fortunately the relevant attachments were believed to be in one of the tool cabinets on Foremarke Hall which was off down the line somewhere, so the owning group members present agreed to filling her up with non-RO water using a regular hosepipe connected up to the water gauge.

Filling the boiler through the water gauge

As has already been mentioned, the Russian coal is much smokier than the Welsh...  and before anybody asks, yes I had removed the chimney cap.

Conflagration with contamination

The peace was shattered by the Peak parked on road 7 being started up (it's surprisingly loud when you're only a few yards away from it).  Eventually it made a few movements up and down the yard under it's own power.  I think that may have been the first time that it has done that.  Certainly there seemed to be a few happy souls wandering around taking photos for posterity.

Peak on the move

 The GWSR has quite an active 'young person's group' and one of them wandered up onto the footplate of 2807 as I was in the process of getting the warming fire going. Ashley as it turns out is 14 and keen to join the steam loco dept when he reaches 16. As he seemed so keen I let him put on a few shovels of coal onto the fire.  When I left 2807 for the day, I found that he'd written his name in the dirt on one of the cylinder covers.

Ash

 When he reaches 16, we'll have to show him how to clean dirt off rather than write in it.

Good news comes in threes

Saturday morning started off bright and early... and it was just about bright too, no need for a torch to illuminate my way into the yard at Toddington first thing. Unfortunately none of the other cleaners started off bright and early; either I'm using the wrong soap or have said something on here to annoy them. Even Sean, the rostered fireman for the morning was a bit late, apparently he'd managed to sleep through the first of his alarm clocks going off. Never mind, it was looking like a nice start to the day and I set to buffing up 2807 for the day ahead.

The sun rises over the peak of the er... Peak

I set about cleaning her in my preferred order, smoke box first as it may start off hot, but will only get smokier & hotter as the morning progresses, followed by the brass safety valve bonnet (again as it won't get any cooler) then wash over the boiler, then clean the wheels & motion, finishing off with the running plate.  Near the end, Ade (afternoon fireman) and Andy (RSF) appeared with a tray of tea, very welcome indeed.

Andy & Ade with the tea

Cliff was down for a driver training turn and had just finished oiling up the bits of 2807 that needed it.  Apparently it's thirsty work oiling up 2807.

Cliff guarding his cup of tea

I can't remember the last time that one of the locos set off in sunshine... in fact I'm not too sure that I can remember the last time that I saw the sun, so it was a pleasure to watch 2807 set off shed bathed in the morning light. 

A gleaming 2807 setting off

It was at this time that my thoughts drifted towards  getting some breakfast at the Flag & Whistle, however John Cruxon appeared.  Apparently the boiler on Foremarke Hall was only partly filled and needed filling.  I should have asked the question why the boiler was only part filled, but I failed in my role as investigative journalist.... I fear that there would have been no Watergate scandal if I had worked at the Washington Post during Nixon's term in office as President of the USA. I'm guessing that she had just had a boiler washout.  Anyway, regardless of why she was short of water, she wanted shunting over to siding number one and the 5 lengths of fireman's hose run out from the new RO water supply wanted connecting up to her injector overflow pipe to continue from where they had left off filling her up a day or two earlier.

Foregoing breakfast, I joined Foremarke Hall on her shunt over to siding 1

Fireman's hose attached to injector overflow

2807 sets off for Cheltenham as 7903 fills her boiler

No sooner had I got the water in the boiler up to three quarters of the glass and my thoughts had once again turned to getting that much anticipated breakfast, than Tina turned up looking for victims volunteers to crack on with painting the outside of the mess coach.  Once again, thoughts of breakfast were put on hold and I joined in with the team of conscripts volunteers that Tina had rounded up.   Tina had emailed me in advance about trying to get together a working party for painting the mess coach and had promised to wear make-up so that she would allow me to grab a few pictures to put up on the blog.  She renaged on her promise and turned up without make-up.  Chris announced that it was ok to take photos of him though as he was wearing his make-up

Chris filling in the worst of the blemishes on the mess coach

And sanding the filler down when it had dried

Ian gets to work with painting on the primer

Steve Oddy hands back the token as 2807 returns from her first trip up to Cheltenham

Tina without make-up anyway

 At least I took a photo of Tina from this side, she had managed to get a fair amount of grey primer into her hair on the other side... or at least that's what she said it was.  Eventually rain stopped play and we packed up for the day.  The mess coach wasn't quite finished, but at least was progressing in the right direction.

Spot the bit we missed!

Personally I was quite grateful for the rain, it meant that I could finally get some breakfast.... though to be strictly correct, by now it was more of a late lunch.

After breakfast lunch, it was a case of finding things to do that involved staying dry.  Now Richard & Ian haven't quite got the hang of that bit yet and were to be found giving Foremarke Hall a bit of a clean up in the rain:

Richard & Ian hard at work on Foremarke Hall

Three items of good news to finish off with:  Firstly, after a tip off from Ian Carpenter, I took a look in the smoke box of 4270 which is safely tucked away in the nice dry David Page shed to find that it is nearly finished.

4270 smoke box

Since the last time I checked in here, the main steam pipes & super heater elements have been fitted along with final fixing in place of the ejector pipe & the petticoat.  All that remains in here is the oil feed to the cylinders. You can see where that pipe will enter the smoke box just below the one that feeds the regulator towards the top left hand corner of the picture.

The second item of good news came from Paul Richardson.  Apparently he and Chris Irving are now stars of the small screen and will soon be appearing on a tv set near you.  For as much detail as there is at the moment, please click here. Currently believed to be scheduled for May 2nd.  For the benefit of Paul's children if they're reading this, the concensus of opinion around the railway, is that this does make him a celebrity and that you should join his fan club, tidy your rooms, do the washing up and do your home work  (you can pay me later Paul). 
  Once again, in a valiant attempt to keep out of the rain, I joined Dan as he lit a warming fire in Foremarke Hall under the guidance of Sean.  

Dan, building up a warming fire in Foremarke Hall

Dan made only one mistake, if you manage to break a broom whilst sweeping the floor, for heaven's sake try and hide the evidence quick and whatever you do, don't let some fool grab a photo and splash it all over the interweb!

Dan failing abysmally to hide the evidence

Anyway, the third bit of good news, is that Dan is now passed to break brooms light warming fires.  Congratulations Dan.

And finally.... you can stop wearing out your F5 key now Ian Butler