Going Loco - June 2024

28 JUNE

A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That…

With the Vale of Rheidol Railway opening their new museum at Aberystwyth, a locomotive that had somewhat slipped from the public eye has thankfully been brought back into focus. This is the sole-surviving 4-4-0 Dukedog class locomotive No 9017 Earl of Berkeley. This class of locomotive is a curious mix, that was born at a time when an outside-framed machine like this was positively outdated. So how did that come about?

No 9017 inside the new museum at Aberystwyth in June 2024

Picture this, it is the mid 1930s. Swindon works is confidently pumping out such classics as Halls, Granges, Manors, Castles and Kings. So what business did it have introducing a brand-new outside-framed 4-4-0 that looks like a product of the 1890s? Well, it really wasn’t quite as it seemed. Due to the introduction of the above mentioned classes, the outside framed 4-4-0s were being retired in large numbers. During this time, the City, Badminton and Atbara classes were all withdrawn from service. These were all large-wheel locomotives with driving wheel diameters of 6’8” and this made them exclusively express passenger engines.

No 3265 Tre Pol and Pen at Barmouth after conversion to the prototype Dukedog class 4-4-0

There were however, some smaller wheeled 4-4-0s with driving wheels at 5’8” in diameter. These locomotives continued to be quite useful as they had a relatively high power output for their size but, due to their low weight they were able to travel over many routes that the larger 4-6-0s were too heavy for. Of local interest for us at Didcot were the Duke class. 60 of these engines were built between 1895 and 1899. They did have by the beginning of the 1930s a bit of a problem. This was that the frames of the locomotives were pretty much worn out and in very poor condition.

No 3201 carrying the name St Michael, which she did during April and May 1936

While the bottom end of the locomotives were not great, their boilers were another matter entirely. Another 4-4-0 class, the Bulldogs, were also now being displaced by the larger 4-6-0s. the Bulldogs were heavier than the Dukes, but had the advantage of knowledge gained over the years and had a far better design of main frames. Swindon was never an organisation to throw away good material. Therefore, in 1929 something of a marriage ceremony was performed!

Duke class 4-4-0 No 3282 showing the elegant frames with curves over the driving wheel axleboxes, which were, however, not of robust design

In December 1929 Duke class locomotive No 3265 Tre Pol and Pen had been withdrawn at Swindon. She had all of the fittings above running plate removed and set aside along with the Duke class boiler. Also withdrawn was the straight top framed Bulldog class No 3365 Charles Grey Mott. The upper parts of the Duke and the lower parts of the bulldog were joined together to make this new hybrid machine. Whilst we now know this as the Dukedog class, it was originally known as the Earl class. This ‘new’ engine kept her original name at first, but was renumbered as 3201 in April 1936 and briefly carried the name St Michael.

Bulldog class 4-4-0 No 3380 River Yealm showing the more substantial frames fitted to this class, compared with the Duke class

This conversion was an immediate success and in the end, a total of 29 machines were so treated. They are most famous for two things. The first is the reason for that ‘Earl’ name. The plan was that originally they were to be named after prominent earls with a connection to the Great Western Railway. At least that was the plan of Charles Collett, the Chief Mechanical Engineer.

No 3217 had one of her preservation-era overhauls at Didcot during the late 1980s

He had been repeatedly asked by the GWR board to name some of his new engines after the aforementioned Earls. He really did not want to put those names on his new Castle class machines, so, in the tradition of the obstreperous doing exactly what they are told, he put the Earl names on his latest engines! Needless to say, that when an antique looking outside-frame 4-4-0 was presented for naming at Paddington, the great and the good were less than impressed… The names were eventually transferred to Castle class engines Nos 5043 – 5062, but it is a rather unusual and in a way, quite pleasing example of a display of a sense of humour in Collett

No 3217 after completion of the overhaul at Didcot

The second thing that the Dukedog class are famous for is operating on the Cambrian routes in Wales. The reason for the success being that they were one of the few classes that were light enough to travel over the wooden bridge at Barmouth. This gave them a surprising longevity. Despite the Second World War curtailing and eventually ending the conversion programme, the utility of these machines allowed them to be among the last outside-framed steam locomotives in regular operation British Railways. The class was re-numbered in 1947 from the 32XX series to the 90XX series. The last of these remarkable machines were still in service into the very early 1960s.

No 3217 and No 3440 City of Truro double-heading a train at Didcot

The preserved machine, No 9017 Earl of Berkeley, was constructed using Duke class No 3282 and Bulldog class No 3425 in 1938. Like many of its class, she spent most of her working life on the Cambrian route. She was withdrawn from service in 1960 from Oswestry shed. From here she was privately preserved and taken to the Bluebell Railway where she has lived ever since, Great Western outpost in the Southern Region. Ironically, she carries the nameplates from Castle class No 5060 – a case of history coming full circle perhaps? She has carried both of her numbers in preservation as well, being reunited with her original numberplates upon the withdrawal of Collett Goods 0-6-0 No 3217. She was donated to the Bluebell Railway in 2003.

No 3217 waits at Didcot Halt while the crew enjoy mugs of tea

She has had various periods of operation over the years. The last one ended in 2011 after a series of mechanical and boiler failures. The engine is currently on loan in the new museum at Aberystwyth for a period of two years. After then, who knows? It would be really nice to have an operating GWR outside-frame 4-4-0 again one day. Perhaps the completion of the replica Churchward 4-4-0 County will be a good time to see the mongrel take flight once again.

21 JUNE

Little Didcot

Thanks to Photo Frank for his excellent photo essay on the stars of the silver screen that we have seen mingling with the collection at Didcot. That’s quite the history over the years. Some of which your blogger saw as a child in the cinema and some that came out before he was born … There are some amazing bits of cinema in there too. How do I follow that? Well, in the greatest traditions of Monty Python’s Flying Circus – “And now for something completely different …”

The original Fawley Cutting layout, as it appeared in on television. This is the branch and main lines converging on one side

The weekend of 22 and 23 June will see the inaugural, of what will hopefully become annual, Didcot Railway Centre Model Railway Event. So what’s that got to do with me? Well, a few years ago, your blogger was asked – along with a few of his fellows – by Lady Judy McAlpine to form a team for a television series that was to be shot at Fawley Hill. As you may or may not know, this was the museum and garden railway* of the late great Sir William McAlpine. The show? Something called The Great Model Railway Challenge.

And this is William Street Yard in its original state and position. It’s been HEAVILY rebuilt from here!

A team called The Fawley Fliers was duly formed, and five brave railway modellers were thrown into the fray. We did quite well, wining our first heat but didn’t quite get to lift the trophy at the end. Ahh well, we were in it to say ‘thanks’ to the lovely lady that lets us play with her full-size train set in her garden, and not to win! But this left us with a small, er, quite large problem. To the tune of two layouts. While it would have been lovely to keep them both, it really wasn’t practical so we did a bit of editing …

The remains of the original William Street Yard as liberated from the rest of the layout. Only the track and some of the ballasting remains totally original

The loco shed layout, called 81M**, was dismantled and its parts went into what became a fairly large store of model railway bits. The other layout was known as Fawley Cutting (imaginative, weren’t we?!) and it comprised of a junction with the twin track main line that the competition demanded and, for reasons, a small shunting yard on top. Of all the bits of the layouts we wanted to play with – er, we mean operate(!) – it was this shunting yard. So, a rescue plan was formulated.

The Phoenix arises – the start of the new display set up for the layout. “We can rebuild him – we have the technology”

The track and components were salvaged from the lower section and the shunting yard was removed. While the track was reasonably well laid and the ballasting and track weathering was also pretty good, the wiring beyond the attachment to the track wasn’t great. We needed to build a fiddle yard as the show only needed us to make it LOOK like it was working. Then we took a look at the scenery. Well, we could improve that, right? If we are doing that, then we could improve the control system as well can’t we? And we could add some other cool features too can’t we? Welcome to our rabbit hole …

A Hall brings in her fast freight to the yards for shunting as a Dean Goods awaits on the departure road for the signal. The two sidings in the front left corner are used as a permanent way yard for storing vehicles involved in track maintenance

The resulting layout was taken as far as we could manage. It has as many features in it as I could think to incorporate. It has a menagerie of different British wildlife on it. It has a number of cameo scenes of railway staff on it. For example, take a look at the front of the layout where you can see the fireman who is angrily waiting for his driver to hurry up with his cup of tea in the lineside hut! You would also see the yard manager outside his grounded coach body office. This is kind of special, as it is an actual 3D print of Sir William himself, scanned at his last public appearance by our friends at Modelu. All of the buildings have interiors in them and are fully lit, the yard lights work as well.

Two panniers are busy shunting the yard as the Hall takes water from the column

The water crane works and goes through an animated sequence which tells you what’s going on. Also animated, because I’ve never seen it done before, are the ground levers for the points. This seemed simple until you realise that the lever has to operate every time the point moves and not just once in one direction and once in the other. This caused a bit of head scratching … We did it though! The ground signal and the goods line signal are also operational and fully lit. The lighting rig uses electrical conduit as a frame and the lighting system is 24 volt, just like in a real passenger coach.

Pannier No 3650 takes water as a shunter discusses the day’s work with the yard manager (played by a 3D printed Sir William McAlpine)

What’s really nice about exhibiting at Didcot, is that the vast majority of the rolling stock on the layout are faithful representations of the preserved fleet that we have on site. This includes most of the locomotives and freight stock. This is the collection that I have nicknamed ‘Little Didcot’. Each of the models doesn’t have just the correct number, but is exactly the right type as well. The little Didcot collection as a whole is just a couple of locomotives and three freight wagons short of completion. Just don’t ask me about the passenger coaches – there’s a fair bit of work to do on that front still…

No 3738 shunts in the front yard with a complete train ready to leave in the background

The plan is that I will get the team to run William Street Yard and I’m going to sit at a nearby table and do various modelling skills demonstrations. I’ve already been asked to renumber and weather a pair of 15XX pannier tank locomotives and to fit DCC decoders to them. I’m also planning to find a couple of rolling stock kits from my ‘embarrassment sized’ backlog(!)*** to be getting on with as well. Please come and say hello and see what we are up to. It should be fun – I’ll see you there!

Heavy freight 2-8-0 No 3822 is ready to go and awaits the signal 

* For those that don’t know, it’s full size standard gauge – yep!

** The fake but real shed code that was used by Sir William for Fawley Hill loco shed. The buildings were vaguely based on those at Didcot. Sad to lose, but it was built in a hurry and there are now other plans afoot …

*** You can’t leave that poor lonely kit laying there on the shelf can you now? Might not be there next time…

14 JUNE

The Shed 5 - Holiday Snaps

As part of our Going Loco series on engine shed related matters, we have realised that Didcot Engine Shed is much travelled and has popped up in many parts of the world as a film star. Now that we are in the summer vacation season, we present for this week’s Going Loco a selection of holiday snaps from the Engine Shed’s journeys.

1. Copenhagen: The Danish Girl (2015) with Alicia Vikander

2. Paris: The Danish Girl (2015) with Eddie Redmayne

3. Dover: The Incredible Sarah (1976) with Glenda Jackson being photographed on departing for Paris

4. Dover: The Incredible Sarah (1976) with Glenda Jackson

5. Paris: The Incredible Sarah (1976) with Glenda Jackson

6. Paris: The Incredible Sarah (1976) with Glenda Jackson

7. London Waterloo: Three Men in a Boat (1975) – Michael Palin and Tim Curry depart from Waterloo for their boating holiday. The third man (Stephen Moore) joins them at Kingston

8. London Waterloo: Three Men in a Boat (1975)

9. Moriarty’s armaments factory: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011). A masterpiece of computer generated imagery but you can still identify the real Engine Shed within the picture

10. Moscow: Anna Karenina (2012)

11. Moscow: Anna Karenina (2012), Keira Knightley boards a snow-covered carriage

12. Moscow: Anna Karenina (2012)

13. Moscow: Anna Karenina (2012), Keira Knightley inside the Engine Shed as Moscow station

14. New York: Genius (2016), Colin Firth and Robert Downey Junior at New York Central railroad station

15. Occupied France: François, proof of concept film (2018)

16. Occupied France: François, proof of concept film (2018)

17. Soviet Russia: Thank You Comrades (1978), just after the Bolshevik Revolution, Russian movie makers travel abroad to buy much-needed film stock. Ben Kingsley on left

18. Soviet Russia: Thank You Comrades (1978), after the Bolshevik Revolution travelling cinemas in trains took propaganda films to the population

19. Didcot: The Architecture the Railways Built (2021), back home the Engine Shed was a backdrop for continuity shots in Tim Dunn’s documentary series

7 JUNE

The Shed 4 - Keeping it Going

We have to keep things moving. That’s true of life in general, certain species of shark in particular* and is a truism as far as the railway is concerned. The steam locomotive is a maintenance-hungry beast. They are finicky in the extreme at times and some engines in particular will constantly do their level best to not work when you need them to. The old thing about engines having their own distinct ‘personalities’ is in many ways true.

To make sure these quasi-alive beasts kept moving, there were a whole host of different arrangements. We will continue looking at the post-war era under the guidance of our friend from last week – Bernard Barlow in his book Didcot Engineman. The first of which he described was the maintenance schedule. This was known as the MP11. This was essentially the title of the document.

Repacking a piston gland on 2999

The mechanical examinations included all the moving parts of an engine such as the valves, pistons, wheels, valve gear and so on. These were done every 6,000 and then 12,000 miles. There was also something called the X Day examination which was usually undertaken while the crew was preparing the locomotive for either a vacuum-fitted goods or passenger service. This was due to the inherently higher speeds that would be involved. Engines working as pilot, shunter or goods trains which had lower top speeds, were examined once a week. This brought to the attention of the fitters (maintenance staff) any issues that needed attention. Of course there were then mechanical issues discovered by the crews out on the road. These were booked upon the return of the engine to the shed for the fitters to deal with.

The pump and hoses ready for washing out 1340

While the mechanical parts were done on a mileage basis, the safety critical systems on the boiler were examined on a time based schedule. This was on a three, six or twelve monthly schedule. As well as the mechanical and safety systems, there was keeping the boiler clean. Apart from the regular emptying of firebox, ashpan and smokebox, the most regular of the maintenance jobs on a steam engine – then as is now – is the washing out of the boiler.** This too had its own schedule, according to the class of locomotive. 60XX and 50XX (Kings and Castles) were washed out after every four days in traffic. The 59XX, 69XX (Hall and modified Hall) and 28XX (2-8-0 tender locomotives) were done every seven days and the smaller tank engines were done after fourteen days and so on.

The process at Didcot was done by a team of boiler washers that were three strong. There was also a boilersmith and boilersmith’s mate that was sometimes a young cleaner - a boy training to become an engineman. One of the jobs that Bernard Barlow remembered doing with the boilersmith was raising steam on the old Dean-era boiler (No 947) that was installed to provide steam and hot water to the wash-out pipework and to pump the water up into the the oil tanks in the oil store. The boilersmith would remove all the boiler wash out plugs and the mud hole doors and the loco was then turned over to the wash out team.

Washing out 4144

The boiler washers had a series of tools at their disposal. The hoses they used had a variety of different nozzles that could be fitted to the ends of them. There were differing lengths and angles of jet that enabled the washers to get to all the nooks and crannies in the boiler. There are quite a few areas that are difficult to get to as well. The fire and flue tubes get in the way as does the fact that there is an inner and outer firebox with only a few inches between them and all the stays in there too. The silt and scale is washed from the top, downwards and in theory is flushed out. The reality is though that the silt and scale can compact and solidify and this necessitated the use of metal rods and the like to poke in the cramped spaces to loosen it up first.

Young volunteers with one of the washing out nozzles after 4144’s wash out

The teams worked together and there was a man working the hose and another working the valve to turn the water on and off. The hose man would shout to the valve man on or off. When the valve was turned off, the man working the hose would move to another mud hole door or wash out plug hole. This is all well and good if you can be heard but the problem came in the fact that Didcot shed was at times extremely noisy. This meant that it was not uncommon for the man on the hose to get an unexpected soaking! Bernard Barlow remembers that the boiler washout worked on a piecework basis and that were only so many hours allocated for each locomotive. He said “I’m convinced that the work was hurried – the sooner the job was done, the earlier they could finish. I don’t think that some of the locos had the really thorough wash they needed, in between boiler inspections, and I was later to experience the problems this caused”.

Replacing the tapered plugs in 2999’s boiler after a wash out

Whatever the reality of the situation, the truth is that a dirty boiler does not allow heat to be transferred from the fire to the water efficiently. this clearly means that the locomotive will not operate efficiently and can cause a lot of problems for the fireman trying to provide steam to his driver. The more heat that is wasted, the more coal that has to be shovelled by the fireman to keep the engine working. You can see why Bernard was not impressed, as a trainee fireman, when he got an engine that was badly washed out.

That will do for our look at the basic data today maintenance of steam locomotives on Didcot shed during the steam era. What we will do next time is take a look at the various trades and skills that were used at Didcot to keep the steam locomotives running. We will also have a look at the shed staff structure to see how this all fitted together, and the maintenance areas such as the lifting shop. See you next time!

Of course even Great Western Engine sheds don't last for ever, and Didcot remains as the last such shed in use for, broadly, its original purpose.  You may be aware that we are currently fundraising towards a major refurbishment of the main shed roof, and should you wish to find out more or contribute, please look at our shed roof appeal page.

* For those that don’t know this particular nugget of information, some species of shark require oxygenated water flowing over their gills constantly in order to breathe. No flow = dead fish …

** There is an excellent British Transport Films production which is on YouTube that I encourage you to watch if you want the in detail story on how boiler wash outs were performed in the steam age. It’s called Wash and Brush Up and you can click the link to see it.

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