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Football fans asked to help build new B17 Manchester United

Around two million supporters of Manchester United across the world are to be asked to contribute to the £1.8-million project – which will recreate scrapped LNER B17 4-6-0 No. 61662 Manchester United.

The scheme is being promoted by the North British Locomotive Preservation Group, which aims to have the locomotive built to main line standards as an ambassador both for the steam movement and the football club itself.

It believes that the locomotive could be built within five years.

The original Manchester United locomotive was built in 1937 and ran almost one million miles in traffic before being withdrawn from service at the end of 1959.

It was a member of Sir Nigel Gresley’s B17 class which was designed by the North British Locomotive Company in 1928.

The design dates back to the General Strike of 1926, where a shortage of quality coal led to failures of ageing pre-Grouping locomotives on the LNER, and its Great Eastern district in particular.

There was also a shortage of express passenger locomotives to cope with heavier workloads and new vacuum-braked coaches, and because of the Great Eastern Railway loading gauge restrictions, it was not possible to switch suitable engine types from other parts of the LNER system.

LNER management told their Chief Mechanical Engineer to produce a new 4-6-0 design to complement the existing B12s.

His initial specifications were for a three-cylinder 4-6-0, using the cylinder and motion arrangement of the D49 4-4-0, but Doncaster struggled to produce the drawings, and that job was delegated to North British.

In February 1928, the LNER accepted its design for a locomotive with an 18-ton axle loading, even though it would restrict the route availability to a set number of GER main lines. The design adopted many features from a North British batch of A1 Pacifics built in 1924, including the cab, cylinders, and motion, while the boiler design was based on the K3 2-6-0 and O2 2-8-0 designs.

Ten were ordered, the first B17 being delivered on 30 November 1928.

Darlington turned out 52 between 1930-36, with Robert Stephenson adding a final batch of 11 in 1937, making a total of 73.

Between 1930 and 1936, Darlington would produce 52 B17s in five batches. A final batch of eleven would be built by Robert Stephenson & Co. in 1937; resulting in a total of 73 B17s built.

The first of them, No 2800, was named Sandringham, beginning a sequence of B17s named after English country houses, while No 2848 Arsenal was the first in the line of 25 named after Football League clubs. Each one carried club colours and a distinctive brass football.

Modifications between each batch led to six subclasses, the most notable being the B17/5s, Nos 61659 East Anglian and 61670 City of London which were given A4-style streamlining for use on the ‘East Anglian’ service between Liverpool Street and Norwich.

The B17s proved popular on the London to Cambridge route, but less so on the line to Ipswich because of steeper gradients. Eventually they worked the cross-country service from Ipswich to Manchester and East Anglia's heavy boat trains.

Eventually they are allocated to depots as far afield as Gorton, Neasden, Leicester, and Sheffield, but in postwar times, became restricted to the GE Distgrict.

Between 1945 and 1947, Gresley’s successor Thompson rebuilt nine B17s with the Diagram 100A boiler and two cylinders, and they became B2s.

The first ‘Sandringham’ to be withdrawn was No 61604 Elveden in 1953, and the majority of the class were taken out of service in 1958-59.

The last survivor, No 61668 Bradford City, was scrapped at Stratford in September 1960. Sadly the steam preservation movement was in its infancy in the early 1960s and the Manchester United locomotive had earlier been likewise broken up for scrap before efforts could be made to save it.

However, the nameplates and worksplates were saved and a replica nameplate was placed on display at Old Trafford.

The North British Locomotive Preservation Group includes several Manchester United fans in their ranks.

The group aims to follow in the footsteps of The A1 Steam Locomotive Company, which built and operates the hugely-successful 50^th member of the Peppercorn A1 Pacifics, No. 60163 Tornado.

NELP hopes to minimise costs by using many of the same patterns and equipment.

The city of Manchester has a world famous history of engine building including the Beyer Peacock locomotive company and the former Great Central Railway works at Gorton.

There is also a direct connection with North British as Sharp Stewart & Co, which built more than 3,000 steam locomotives at their atlas works in Manchester over a 50 -year period, later moved to Glasgow and became a major constituent of the North British Locomotive Company.

Several of the locomotive sheds in Manchester, including Newton Heath, Patricroft and Trafford Park, lasted until 1968, the final year of steam on British Railways and there have always been a large number of railway enthusiasts in the local area.

Given the close proximity of preserved steam centres such as the railway works at Crewe and the East Lancashire railway, it is hoped to construct much of the new locomotive in local the area thus helping to create interest and employment.

The origins of the project lie in the North British Locomotive Preservation Group’s previous scheme to build not one but two B17s, as exclusively featured in Heritage Railway issue 111 four years ago.

Under that scheme, one of the planned B17 would be built to operational standard, 

for use on both the main line and heritage railways. The other would be a non-working example for exhibition for static display at museums.

One of the locomotives would carry the name Sandringham after the first member of the class, while the other will recreate one of the ‘Footballers’.

One Great Eastern-type tender and one LNER tender were obtained, and under the plan, these would be interchangable between the two locomotives. Therefore, either a ‘Sandringham’ or a ‘Footballer’ would be available for work while the other engine remained on display.

When the project went public in 2008, a number of enthusiasts joined the North British Locomotive Preservation Group to support it, and eventually the Sandringham Locomotive Company was formed. Renowned steam engineer Kim Malyon was a leading light of the company but sadly passed away before a great deal of progress could be made.

Early in 2010, some members within the Sandringham Locomotive Company proposed the idea of forming a new trust to take over the project.

This came into being in 2011 when they took over most of the assets of the company.

As reported in Heritage Railway issue 158, the two tenders were moved to Dereham on the Mid-Norfolk Railway, a former Great Eastern line, for the project to start.

Although the new trust has dropped the idea of itself building two B17s, the North British Locomotive Preservation Group retained its ‘half’ of the scheme, to build a new ‘Footballer’.

NBLPG held back with relaunching its Manchester United scheme so that the new B17 Trust – which aims to recreate No. 60160 Sandringham, the first member of the class, could become established in its own right.

Now the North British Locomotive Preservation Group is going full steam ahead in its own right – although many of its members support the new trust too.

The North British Locomotive Preservation Group does not see itself as competing with the B17 Trust, as it will be appealing for funds from a different sector.

NBLPG hopes to attract funding from via football supporters who would not normally donate to a steam locomotive project, with the Manchester area targeted in particular.

Engine 61662 Appeal project leader Ken Livermore said: “There are an estimated two million Manchester United supporters world wide and if each one would be prepared to make just a £1 donation we will be well on the way to success.

“Any funds we raise for No. 61662 will not be at the expense of the Trust and indeed, if middle of the road enthusiasts contact us we will be happy to point them in the direction of the Trust.

However, there will be a great deal of common ground between the two schemes including items such as drawings and patterns etc, and we will be delighted to share the cost of acquiring these items if this can be agreed. No discussion on this has yet taken place however.”

*Anyone who wants to donate to the Manchester United project or become involved is asked to visit www.engine61662appeal.co.uk for further information

All donations, however small will be gratefully received. They can also be sent to: Engine 61662 Appeal, PO Box 185, Audenshaw, Manchester, M34 0BE. Please make cheques etc payable to Engine 61662 Appeal. 

*A full story will appear in Heritage Railway issue 160, on sale February 17.