Going Loco - April 2024

26 APRIL

The Dean Goods’ Younger Brother

The older brother, Dean Goods No 2351

So, remember that lovely old Dean Goods from all that time ago and the amazing story which was told about a loco that went to war? Twice?* Fantastic stuff! Well, as with so many other things, Collett had a go too.

2212 from a similar angle to the Dean Goods, at her home shed of Reading in 1962. Photograph by Mike Peart

There is a weird gap in development here as there were so many Dean Goods about that Churchward really never needed to have a go himself. It may also be the case that because the Dean Goods was so good at its job, attention went elsewhere. The small goods locomotives perhaps were also seen as a thing of the past. Trains were getting heavier and longer and the Dean Goods looked antiquated even then.

3211 in the carriage sidings at Didcot, now the site of the access ramp to the Railway Centre

But it had a niche. There was still a need for a small goods loco that could go anywhere and do anything. Lighter laid branch lines and the Cambrian lines were the perfect arena for the Dean Goods to perform and as a result, they kept going. And going. And going. By the time the 1930s were on the horizon, they were all reaching the end of their working lives. Indeed, if it hadn’t been for the Second World War calling them back to service, it might have been the case that we wouldn’t have the preserved example we have today.

2213 looking very smart in the new British Railways lined black livery on 10 November 1950

The ‘replacement’ was designed by Collet and his team at Swindon beginning with the original Dean Goods idea. It was really an updated version of the classic machine. As with the Castles and Halls, this goes to prove the excellence of Collett’s engineering sense. He may not have been the great locomotive innovator that Churchward was, but he was an outstanding production engineer. His ability to make something that was already good and reinvent it to keep it relevant and useful is undeniable. A massive cost saver as well – especially relevant when you consider that a large part of his tenure at the helm was during the Great Depression …

3210 with train near Winchester on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton line in the 1950s. Photograph from the Peter Lugg collection in the Great Western Trust at Didcot Railway Centre

The major dimensions of the two machines were basically the same. 5’ 2” driving wheels, 17” diameter by 24” stroke cylinders on the Dean Goods and a mere ½” extra diameter on the Collett version. The biggest difference between the two locomotives was in their steam plant. The original had a number of different boilers but the boiler pressure was 180 psi. The Collett boilers were altogether more advanced units. They were the Standard 10 design with a single row superheater. There were two versions of the superheater – a 4 element and a 6 element, but it was a big step forward in either version.

3218 leaving Glastonbury and Street station with an Evercreech to Highbridge train. Glastonbury Tor is in the background. Photograph by R E Toop

Boiler pressure increased to 200 psi and with that there was a corresponding increase in tractive effort from 18,140 lbf to 20,155 lbf. The Standard 10 boiler went on in the future to be fitted to the 94XX and 15XX pannier tank classes. Crew comforts were looked at as well. The minimalist roof and side walls of the Dean era machine were replaced by a full Collett style cab. This had the wondrous features of side windows and tip down wooden seats. These Collett cabs led to them getting the affectionate nickname of ‘Baby Castles’!

2241 shunting at Gloucester on 27 January 1962. Photograph by Ben Brooksbank

All these improvements did have a downside, however. The big problem being that all this extra weight in the boiler and cab meant that it was a heavier machine than the original – 43 tons 8 cwt as opposed to 36 tons 8 cwt. This gave a subsequent increase in axle loading and this then put restrictions on where the new locomotives could run, unlike the Dean Goods which was a go-anywhere machine. The Yellow route restriction wasn’t the worst but it wasn’t as good as no restrictions! The later 94XX and 15XX class panniers suffered even worse and were classified as Red route engines, the same as a Hall or a Castle! These new engines were classified after the first example No 2251, becoming the 2251 class officially.

2242 with a local train from Cheltenham St James’ entering Gloucester at Tramway Junction on 16 June 1962. Photograph by Ben Brooksbank

They were little altered throughout the entire production run of 120 machines, with a few minor exceptions. Differences in the number of superheater elements have already been mentioned but the big difference was for some of the engines built during WWII. Nos 2211 to 2230, were built as part of the sixth batch in 1940. Due to blackout regulations, GWR tender locomotives with the large Collett style cab had their large side windows plated over so that no light could escape and guide enemy aircraft. Lot 337 made this a whole lot easier by simply dispensing with the side window holes all together. They all eventually got side windows but No 2238 at least was still in her wartime configuration as late as September of 1957! The only other big difference I could find was that the first batch had lever reversers but all the subsequent locomotives had screw reversers. This was rectified when they went through the works and all of them ended up with screw reversers. Swindon standardisation at work …

2232 fitted with a plough and ready to take on the snow at Gloucester on New Year’s Eve 1961. Photograph by Mike Peart

The last batch was something of a watershed moment, No 3217 was, on paper at least, the last locomotive built by the Great Western Railway, being delivered in December 1947. The final two of the last batch, Nos 3218 & 3219 were delivered in January 1948, making them Swindon’s first British Railways locomotives completed. A technicality for sure, but kind of interesting! They were as humble and stoic as the Dean Goods in their duties and in the final analysis, sadly didn’t last much longer! When you think that the last Dean Goods was withdrawn from service in 1957 and that withdrawals of the Collett Goods started in 1958, to be completed by 1965, there really wasn’t a lot in it.

2217 not fitted with a plough and consequently stuck in snow between Cheddar and Draycott in 1963. Photograph by Bristol Live

There is a silver lining to this however in that one of these engines made it into preservation. No 3205 was found working on the Somerset & Dorset Railway after it was taken over by the Western Region. A fund was set up to preserve her with the late David Rouse as the principal trustee. The 2251 Fund was successful in its mission and she became the second locomotive to be preserved on what was then known as the Dart Valley Railway. She has had a slightly nomadic lifestyle, spending time at the Severn Valley Railway and then at West Somerset Railway before finally returning home to what is known today as the South Devon Railway. She is out of ticket at the time of writing awaiting a major overhaul, but I’m sure it can’t be too much longer before the Baby Castle comes back. To paraphrase the good Reverend – she’s a really useful engine …

3205 at Didcot engine shed in September 1967. She was on her way from the Great Western Society’s open day at Taplow to her then home at the Severn Valley Railway

* See our Going Loco blog on 6 August 2021

19 APRIL

The City of the Future?

So, we had THAT discussion last week. You know, the ‘City of Truro / Flying Scotsman, which was first to 100mph?’ discussion. Who got there first? I very bravely dodged the issue and gave you a few facts and then left it to you. Which I think is the best we can do at this point in time. Whatever you thought of the outcome of the Ocean Mails train of 9 May 1904, it did have the wonderful effect of getting a superb locomotive preserved. So, let’s find out the rest of the story shall we?

She served dutifully until 1931 and in that time of course she had received the updated cylinders and superheating modifications as per the rest of her sisters. Also like her sisters, despite remaining useful for a good many years, she was outdated by the start of the Great War. An outside-frame 4-4-0 as an express passenger engine just wasn’t going to cut it any more. They were simply eclipsed by Churchward’s magnificent 4-6-0 designs that in one form or another would hold sway over the Great Western main lines until the diesels took over in the 1960s. March 1931 should have been the end. The Great Western Railway was, and still is, notorious for not preserving its own locomotives. Many historic machines went for scrap either straight from service or even after being ‘preserved’.

City of Truro at Didcot with the 12.42 pm train to Southampton on 19 July 1957

Thankfully, one of the men at the top clearly had a soft spot for the old engine. A quite unlikely saviour he was as well. Charles Collett, Churchward’s replacement as chief mechanical engineer, seems to have been determined not to let City of Truro go. The GWR had refused point blank to preserve it. Undeterred, Collett contacted the LNER, as they had a museum at York, and with his influence managed to get the locomotive donated there. She left Swindon that same month and travelled to York. Here, she was laid up and put on static display.

On Sunday 18 August 1957 the Railway Correspondence and Travel Society organised a railtour from London Paddington to Swindon hauled by City of Truro. This photograph shows the train racing through Hayes and Harlington in west London on the return journey. Note the station running-board proclaiming Hayes to be ‘The home of His Master’s Voice’. Photograph from the LCGB Ken Nunn collection

City of Truro was left there until the outbreak of World War II. The possibility (a certainty as it turned out) that the railway infrastructure around York would be heavily bombed, led the LNER to evacuate the inhabitants of their museum to a safer place. This was determined to be, in City of Truro’s case, a small engine shed at the station at Sprouston. This now closed branch line ran between Tweedmouth and St Boswells in the Scottish Borders area. She returned to the museum post WWII and continued to reside there until 1957.

City of Truro at Paddington station on 23 July 1958. During that month her daily routine was working up to Paddington from Didcot on a morning commuter train and back in the evening, and doing empty stock work at Paddington during the day. Photograph by Ben Brooksbank

Which was when something weird happened.

In the midst of a forward thinking, modernising and now nationalised British Railways, a whole bunch of museum exhibits were overhauled and brought back into service! That’s right – old engines, many that were 60+ years old at the time, were returned to service to pull special trains. City of Truro entered Swindon Works early in 1957 as No 3717 and emerged in an approximation of the livery she wore when new and sporting her original number of 3440. The approximation bit comes from the fact that the Indian Red that the frames were painted in was not a very accurate shade. One report, possibly apocryphal, said that in the absence of an alternative, the colour used was the bauxite red used for fitted freight wagons under the BR livery scheme of the time. It then had copious quantities of varnish applied to make it ‘posh’ …

The two preserved GWR 4-4-0s, City of Truro and the ‘Dukedog’ No 3217 Earl of Berkeley, double heading at Didcot on 14 May 1989. Photograph by John Cornelius

Whatever the reality of the paint situation, this almost Victorian locomotive was put back into service. People think that means special trains only but no, this engine was in everyday revenue earning service. And the best bit? She was a Didcot engine! When not engaged on several famous special services over the UK network, she operated regular service trains on the Didcot, Newbury and Southampton line. She ran as such until 1961, when she was returned to the black-framed livery and No 3717. This time she was put on static display the Great Western Railway Museum at Swindon.

City of Truro during her visit to the Netherlands in 1989. Photograph in the Peter Lugg collection

1985 was the 150th anniversary of the GWR and the year before, City of Truro was taken to the Severn Valley Railway where she was once again restored to working order. After the celebrations, she was returned to the museum at York from where she operated until withdrawn from service in 1992. One amazing trip she went on during this time was as the ‘British Ambassador’ at the 150th Anniversary of the Netherlands Railways in 1989. It was the intention that this spot was to have been taken by A4 class Pacific No 4468 Mallard which was in traffic at the time, but she had failed a boiler test and therefore the GWR came to the rescue of the LNER! City of Truro was an excellent advert for UK steam, spending six weeks in the Netherlands and creating many overseas fans as a result.

City of Truro revisiting Dawlish in May 2004 on the 100th anniversary of her record-breaking run with the Ocean Mails train in 1904

The final time that the locomotive was been restored to operation was in 2004. This time done by the Flour Mill at Bream. She was thus able to celebrate the 100th anniversary of her record breaking 1904 run. As such, she was seen as No 3440 again in a somewhat more accurate livery than last time … She did haul a few services on the main line but served most of this boiler ticket on heritage lines. She made her way back into her No. 3717 / black framed guise in 2010 to play her part in the GWR 175th Anniversary. She was sadly not able to see out her full ‘ten year’ ticket. She was withdrawn from traffic in September 2011 with leaking boiler tubes and was put on static display at Shildon Locomotion Museum. She was put back into service for 2012 but this too didn’t last. The National Collection decided to withdraw her from service early and put on static display once again.

City of Truro, as No 3717, with vintage carriages during Didcot’s 175th Anniversary of the GWR celebrations in May 2010

She has moved about quite a bit since, being displayed at the National Collection Museums and at Swindon’s Steam Museum too, but for the foreseeable future it looks like No 3717 won’t turn a wheel in anger again. Which is a shame. With the withdrawal of this engine and the only surviving ‘Dukedog’, there isn’t a running example of a GWR outside-framed 4-4-0. But, she is still with us. A locomotive that has inspired pride and controversy in equal measure. In being preserved, the legend of the 1904 run was cemented. So much so that even the good Reverend arranged a fictional visit to the Island of Sodor for No 3440 to meet up with a certain little blue tank engine.

It’s not often that locomotives become icons. I think I can safely say that City of Truro is one of those special machines. Even if she never runs again, that magical ‘what if she DID do that 100mph all those years ago?’ question will keep her relevant and interesting for generations to come.

12 APRIL

THIS City KNEW It Was Built On Rock & Roll!*

The big omission from last week’s blog was of course a certain member of the National Collection. City of Truro has led a charmed life. Considering the lack of preservation of a great deal of turn of the late Nineteenth to early Twentieth Century designs that weren’t part of Churchward’s modernisation plan, she is a remarkable survivor too. She is of course, as any Great Western Railway enthusiast knows, the first steam locomotive to achieve 100mph …

City of Truro in as-built condition

I won’t go into the whole thing I did last week where I went through the class history, but suffice to say that she was completed as No 3440 City of Truro in May 1903. The other claim to fame that ‘Truro’ has – and one that is often overlooked due to the controversial speed record – is the fact that she was the 2,000th locomotive built at Swindon works. A remarkable milestone in itself. The engine wasn’t that old when she notched up the 102.3 mph that she is so famous for achieving.

On the 9 May 1904, the GWR had invited famous locomotive performance expert Charles Rous-Marten to travel on the Ocean Mail service from Plymouth to Paddington. Which did exactly what it said on the tin – take mail from the ships docked at Plymouth and get it, as fast as possible, to London. Passengers weren’t normally carried aboard the Ocean Mail service that Rous-Marten travelled in, so his invitation indicated that something was afoot. I’ll let him tell you what happened from his point of view.

“On one occasion when special experimental tests were being made with an engine having 6 ft. 8 in. coupled wheels hauling a load of approximately 150 tons behind the tender down a gradient of 1 in 90, I personally recorded a rate of no less than 102.3 miles an hour for a single quarter-mile, which was covered in 8.8 seconds, exactly 100 miles an hour for half a mile which occupied 18 seconds, 96.7 miles an hour for a whole mile run in 37.2 seconds; five successive quarter-miles were run respectively in 10 seconds, 9.8 seconds, 9.4 seconds, 9.2 seconds and 8.8 seconds. This I have reason to believe to be the highest railway speed ever authentically recorded.

I need hardly add that the observations were made with the utmost possible care, and with the advantage of previous knowledge that the experiment was to be made, consequently without the disadvantage of unpreparedness that usually attaches itself to speed observations made in a merely casual way in an ordinary passenger train. The performance was certainly an epoch-making one. In a previous trial with another engine of the same class, a maximum of 95.6 miles an hour was reached”.**

The east end of Whiteball tunnel with the railway beginning its descent towards Wellington, where City of Truro made the record run. Photograph: Geoff Sheppard by Creative Commons

And, with that, the controversy began. The first issue we have is that the reports of this record were covered up by the GWR as it didn’t think that locomotives racing about at over 100mph looked particularly safe to its customers. Only the overall start to finish times were published. It was in December 1907 that an issue of The Railway Magazine first mentioned the peak recorded speed. Coupled with that, sadly Rous-Marten died suddenly that same month after suffering a massive heart attack. That was 4 years later and the GWR – ironically using it as a measure of how they were both safe AND fast – didn’t admit to the event until the early 1920s.

So, the age old question is – did City of Truro reach 102.3 mph? Firstly, why isn’t this record ‘official’? Well, the timings were only recorded by one person. To rule out errors, two independent timers are usually required. On the plus side, Rous-Marten was an expert in his field, which is why the GWR had him there in the first place. He knew his stuff and it is unlikely that he made a mistake. It is perhaps surprising that it was only recorded over a short stretch and downhill. This is quite normal for railway records and if you look at the absolute speed record which No 4468 Mallard set in 1938 at 126mph, she only did that over a very short stretch. But she had a dynamometer coach attached which very accurately recorded the performance of Mallard.

A subtle homage to the location of City of Truro’s record is this Somerset County Council direction sign to White Ball, now erected at Didcot Railway Centre

The data provided by Rous-Marten has been analysed several times over the ensuing decades and most have agreed that it seems to be correct although in more recent years, doubt has been cast due to the fact that the log records that she was doing 62mph just three and a half miles before the peak speed was achieved. Bryan Benn calculated in 2017 that it would require 3,000 indicated horsepower to get to 102.3 mph and that in her original, non-superheated state, City of Truro was only capable of 1,000 indicated horsepower. His analysis concluded that a top speed in the 90mph range was more likely.

Mechanically, was she capable? A big question. We have to realise that the engine was pretty much in her as-built state. She wasn’t superheated so the use of steam wasn’t as efficient as it would have been just a few years later in 1911. This was when Swindon fitted the superheater and elongated the smokebox. The other part on the negative side is the fact that she was using flat, slide valves to supply the cylinders with steam. The much more efficient semi-plug piston valves were only fitted in 1915. Experience with steam locomotives with slide valves at over 100 mph is understandably a bit thin on the ground as piston valves were the standard for the sort of engines that did 100mph for the majority of the steam age in the UK. The data simply isn’t there and even if you reactivated No 3440 and convinced then National Collection to let you run her at 102.3 mph (good luck with that!), the engine has been so extensively modified in her service life that you will still have no real comparison.

Initially reluctant to admit to City of Truro’s record speed, the GWR featured it prominently in its book of W Heath Robinson’s cartoons published during its centenary year, 1935

We are never going to positively say for definite that Charles Rous-Marten got it right way back in 1904 or whether he got caught up in the excitement or simply made a mistake. Perhaps sophisticated computer simulation may someday enable us to make a determination but until then we can only make well-educated guesses as to whether No 3440 City of Truro was the first to the ‘Ton’ on rails.

There are so many variables that are involved. There is the quality of the coal and the crew on the day, how well the engine had been maintained, how well lubricated she had been that day, what the exact load behind her was, what the exact gradient she was going down, the exact atmospheric conditions, and so on, and so on … It has almost become an article of faith in some ways – not great for what is a scientific and engineering question. Whatever the reality, champion or fraudster, it did lead to this beautiful and historically significant machine being preserved. More of that next time. 

Her speed exploit earned City of Truro a place at York Railway Museum after being withdrawn by the GWR in 1931

* With continuing apologies to the band Starship.

** This comes from the October 1905 Bulletin of the International Railway Congress.

5 APRIL

Was THIS City Built On Rock & Roll?*

No, clearly it was built in Swindon – I mean, duh! Sure, everyone has heard of the City class – there is a famous one preserved after all – but do we really know the class? Let’s find out …

No Name City – No 3433 at Bath, the city she was named after, but not carrying the nameplate although the brackets are there on the leading splasher

The City class locomotives really are the bridge between the 19th and 20th century design philosophies of Swindon, and the bridge between two great engineering heavyweights – William Dean and George Jackson Churchward. The story starts with a boiler – the Standard 4 boiler to be precise. This was part of Churchward’s grand plan for Great Western Railway locomotive development. A set of standard parts that could mixed and matched to provide interchangeability between classes and reduce manufacturing and maintenance costs.

No 3433’s official photograph in workshop grey livery

This plan had started before his reign as Chief Mechanical Engineer at Swindon. William Dean, his predecessor, was in declining health over his last years in office and he really was allowed to work his way out to retirement as a figurehead. In light of this, Churchward was developing this set of standard parts. If you are going to use these parts fleet-wide, you need to make sure they are good. Boiler technology was key and one of the things he did was to fit one of his brand new Standard 4 boilers to one of the existing Atbara class outside frame 4-4-0s in September 1902. These were on paper at least Dean designs, but really must at least be partially attributed to Churchward as the first was completed in 1900. The conversion of No 3405 Mauritius was a complete success.

No 3435 City of Bristol

This led to the construction of ten new locomotives to the same pattern. It’s interesting that Collett and Hawksworth are blamed for stagnation in Swindon designs but here is Churchward doing the very same thing. If Hawksworth can have the Modified Hall class then maybe the Cities should be called the Modified Atbara class? The locos were 4-4-0 designs and had the straight frames of the Atbara class that were designed to reduce cracking in the metal. They had two inside cylinders that were 18” in diameter and had a stroke of 26”. They had Stephenson valve gear and with their 6’ 8½” diameter driving wheels and modern boiler**, they had a tractive effort of 17,800 lbf.

No 3442 City of Exeter, which came at the end of the class’s number sequence. There is conjecture that the final city name was to be Worcester, in alphabetical order, but somebody then realised that Exeter was missing from the list!

The first, No 3433 was completed in March 1903 and was named City of Bath. This was quickly followed by nine more numbered from 3434 to 3442. These were all named after Cities in the GWR’s sphere of influence, being Birmingham, Bristol, Chester, Exeter, Gloucester, Hereford, London, Truro and Winchester. The last entering service in May of the same year. So successful was the class that nine more of the Atbara class were rebuilt to conform to the City design like No 3405 Mauritius. This lead to a twenty strong class.

No 3441 City of Winchester hauling a Paddington to Oxford train through Southall

They had some modifications along the way; a few had their original steam-controlled reversers replaced with screw-reverser controls. Other modifications were applied as Churchward’s march of technology continued. They had been built as saturated (or non-superheated) engines but superheating systems were fitted between 1910 and 1912, essentially as boiler overhauls became needed. The water feed into the boiler from the clack valves was originally on the bottom of the barrel which was found to be problematic. If you think about it, any chunks of solid debris can get into the non-return clack valves making them able to, er, return. In this case letting steam out of the boiler! Not a great idea. The clack valves were moved to the now standard GWR top feed position, one either side of the safety valve casting, from 1912. Again, boiler exchanges at overhaul enabled this modification to take place.

No 3718 City of Winchester carrying the later number, and with a longer smokebox than that originally fitted

The less efficient slide valves were replaced by piston valves from 1915 by the fitting of new cylinder blocks. New cast iron chimneys became the option of choice in 1921 and there was a rolling replacement scheme of the bogies from the original Dean design to a version based upon the now standard Swindon / de Glehn design, although some engines had been withdrawn before this could be applied class-wide. The other thing of great note was the class being renumbered in 1912 to Nos 3700 – 3719. The older Atbara conversions took the first ten numbers and the later purpose built Cities taking the last ten numbers. You will quite often see them referred to as the 37XX class as a result.***

This City of Winchester nameplate is now in the Great Western Trust collection at Didcot Railway Centre

There was a small blot on their copybook although this had nothing to do with the engines mechanically. No 3710 was involved in an accident on 8 August 1913. Distracted, the driver went through signals set at danger just outside Yeovil Pen Mill Station. The engine and its train slammed into the back of another passenger train that was in the station. Sadly, there were two fatalities.

No 3406 Melbourne – one of the Atbara class which joined the City class after being fitted with the larger Standard 4 boiler

And that really is it for the City class. They were great pieces of technology for what they were, but they were very rapidly made severely outdated by the Churchward and Collett 4-6-0 designs. Looking at them side by side, they are like chalk and cheese. The Cities, by 1920, looked old fashioned. And they were. Small express passenger locos of their kind couldn’t compete with the larger more powerful Saints, Stars and Castles. Relegated to lesser duties, withdrawals began in 1927 and the whole class was gone by 1931. They were participating in their own downfall in a way by being part of Churchward’s technology development programme. Fine machines in their own right but destined to end their days after about 24 years’ service outclassed and forgotten. End of story.

Well it would be the end of the story, if it wasn’t for the exploits, fame and later preservation of No 3440/3717 City of Truro. A whole blog on the Cities with no mention of this engine? What are you thinking?! I guess you will have to stay tuned for more 4-4-0 fun next time folks! 

* With apologies to the band Starship …

** For the time at least!

*** This gets confusing later on as the 37XX number series was reused for 0-6-0 pannier tanks of the 8750 class. Just ask our very own No 3738 …

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