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Steaming back in the seventies - Preservation 1970-74

The end of main line steam spurred thousands of enthusiasts to follow the 60s example of the Bluebell, Middleton, Dart Valley and Keighley &Worth Valley railways and launch their own preservation schemes. And apart from the landmark return of main line steam in late 1971, the decade saw some of Britain’s finest heritage railways run their first services, report Robin Jones and Brian Sharpe.

While the roots of operational railway preservation lay in the early 50s, it was the next decade that laid much of the bedrock on which today's heritage movement was built.

The 60s paved the way for the 70s to begin with a double-sided flourish. The Severn Valley Railway, today Britain's second most popular heritage line in terms of passenger numbers, ran its first public trains at the start of the decade, followed 18 months later by what many had accepted as impossible: the return of steam to the main line.

It was the Bluebell Railway that had directly inspired the early Severn Valley revivalists, and this year the former celebrates its 50th anniversary in early August, while the latter marked its 40th with a by comparison low-key event on Sunday 23 May, a special from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster and back.

It took the Severn Valley much longer to get started than the Bluebell. The seeds of its revival were sown in the mix-60s following the closure of the GWR's Severn Valley and TenburyWells cross-country routes in 1963.

Keith Beddowes, the man credited with the founding of the Severn Valley Railway, said: "I thought that if those down south could do it, why not us?

"At the time it was just a dream. The way I look back at it now was that we just wanted to play trains. Four miles would have been adequate – but that little spark was there and all this has happened."

"We never thought at the time we would ever get back to Kidderminster.We wanted to keep the track in from Hampton Loade to Alveley, where the colliery still ran until 1969, so we could acquire it in the future. It was only when businessmen and the local MP became involved that we saw we could get to Bewdley and even beyond."

He and a few like-minded enthusiasts organised a meeting at the Cooper's Arms in Habberley near Kidderminster on 6 July 1965 to decide which line to try to save. The 50 people present voted for the Severn Valley, the initial target being the four miles between Bridgnorth and Hampton Loade.

British Railways, however, was insisting it was bought outright, rather than being leased or rented.

The nascent Severn Valley Railway Society set out to buy the section along with the extra mile as far south as Alveley Colliery, from where BR was still carrying coal traffic. The revivalists stepped in just as BR began removing track and fittings from Bridgnorth.

Society official John Garth managed to stop the demolition after telephoning BR, and members moved into Bridgnorth station which became their headquarters.

In February 1966, BR announced a price of £25,000 for the desired section, and the formation of the Severn Valley Railway Co. Ltd, to undertake the purchase of the line and apply for the necessary Light Railway Orders, was inaugurated on 24 May 1967.

By then, the society had recruited 600 members, and all-out fund-raising drives were under-way.

The first engine on the line was Collett 0-6-0 No 3205, which had initially been taken by owner David Rouse to the Dart Valley Railway, but he did not want to sell it to the line in exchange for shares, and seized the chance to move it to Bridgnorth instead.

BR allowed stock to be moved in after the 10 per cent deposit on the line was paid in February 1967.

It was towed by Class 42Warship diesel hydraulic D855 Triumph from Totnes, along with three of David's four GWR carriages which formed the basis of the Severn Valley's carriage fleet.

Steam returns to Bridgnorth

It finally arrived in steam with all four coaches at a packed Bridgnorth station on Easter Saturday 25March 1967, Stourbridge BR driver Cyril Williams being joined by new SVR volunteer driver John Hill, a BR steam driver at Tyseley, and a guest on the footplate of 'Flying Pig'No 43106 on this year's anniversary special. Its arrival provided a major publicity boost on local TV for the revivalists.

It was followed on 22 April by Ivatt 2-6-0 No 46443, which had been bought fromBury by chemist RichardWillcox; and inMay by GWR diesel railcar No 22, which had worked on the line and which is now based at Didcot Railway Centre.

By October that year, gala weekends were being staged at Bridgnorth, and to get around the lack of a Light Railway Order to run services for the fare-paying public, passenger trains were run to Hampton Loade for 'daymembers' by agreement with BR.

As the final demise of BR standard gauge steam approached in 1968, visitors to the Severn Valley soared.An August Bank Holiday three-day gala that year saw nearly 10,000 turn up.

Concerned at safety at such events, they were subsequently banned by BR, which was still the LRO holder.

Today's Severn Valley Railway carries more than 250,000 passengers and brings in around £6- million in revenue.When it was severed by floods in the summer of 2007, traders in Bridgnorth, deprived of vital income fromvisitors, were reminded only too well of its importance to the local economy.

Yet back in 1969, Shropshire County Council opposed the railway's bid for the LRO to be transferred from BR, because the line south of Bridgnorth stood in the way of a planned town bypass. A public inquiry, which began at Shire Hall, Shrewsbury, on 1 October 1968, led to the railway's solicitor arguing that the bypass had been discussed for years and might never be built.

Eventually, the county council withdrew its objections to the LRO transfer after reaching agreement with the railway. The railway received its LRO on 20May 1970, three days before the formal launch of heritage era public passenger trains to Hampton Loade. Already, support for the 'Bluebell of theMidlands' was so great that there weremoves afoot to extend service beyond Hampton Loade. Alveley Colliery closed in January 1969, bringing an end to freight traffic on the route to Kidderminster west of Foley Park, where a British Sugar Corporation plant was still served by rail.

BR wanted £74,000 for the redundant line south to Foley Park, and this time the asking price was well out of the society's reach.

To the rescue came controversial Conservative MP for SouthWorcestershire Sir Gerald Nabarro, who brought several other wealthy people on board and all but took charge of the railway himself.Nabarro, who had supported Enoch Powell over his 'rivers of blood' speech, advised the line to forma holdings company, which it did inMarch 1972, and run a share issue to raise the cash. As he assumed more power and control over the scheme, railway officials were eventually forced to reign him in – after hearing first hand that he suggested selling off Bridgnorth station for housing.

He was voted out as chairman at an extraordinary public meeting inMay 1973, after it was found that he had broken the line's constitution by nominating two directors to the holdings company board.

That year, the railwaymoved its headquarters to Bewdley, two years after buying the line from Hampton Loade to just beyond Bewdley Tunnel.

The first heritage era service ran into Bewdley on 18May 1974, and that winter, the newly installed locomotive pit and water tanks were brought into operation.

The Return to Steam

There is little doubt that the major highlight of the early 70s was the lifting of BR's steam ban, which transformed the whole course of steam preservation.

The man credited with persuading the BR board to do a 180-degree U-turn was Peter Prior, then chief executive of Bulmers, cider manufacturers in Hereford, which had sponsored the overhaul of National Collection GWR 4-6-0 No 6000 King George V. Peter wanted to see the engine haul the five coach Bulmers Pullman exhibition train on a promotional tour of the country. And he got his way. Not only that, but also a few extra coaches were added for fare-paying passengers and No 6000 made a four-day tour of the Western Region, taking in Kensington Olympia and Birmingham in early October 1971.

No serious problems were encountered – and BR announced its very limited 'Return to Steam' commencing in June 1972.

Here lay the beginnings of today's main line steam operations.

The rules were: lightly used routes, top speed 60mph, suitable steam locomotive based nearby, and triangle or other turning facility at each end. BR had removed all steam infrastructure, few turntables existed and virtually no watering facilities.

Paignton is privatised!

Following No 4472's overhaul at Derby, it spent a summer season on the newly opened Torbay Steam Railway.

The Paignton-Kingswear line, earmarked for closure by BR in 1968, had become the first operational section of the national network to be privatised.

The seven-mile line, which offered stupendous coastal views over Torbay before passing through Greenway Tunnel and entering the contrasting woodland scenery of the sheltered River Dart estuary, was a prime target for Dart Valley Railway plc.

The Buckfastleigh line has opened in 1969, after being set up by a group of businessmen as a profit-making tourist attraction rather than a line purely for heritage or enthusiast purposes.

The company invited quips that it was next going to bid for Paddington to Penzance after it bought the Kingswear line as a going concern on 30 December 1972.

Flying Scotsman

The engine which could have kept main line steam alive in Britain after 11 August 1968 through its owner's contract with BR was LNER A3 Pacific No 4472 Flying Scotsman. It was on a promotional tour of North America though, which ultimately resulted in the bankruptcy of its owner, Alan Pegler. It was multi-millionaire enthusiast, the HonWilliam McAlpine, who alone was able to purchase the engine and repatriate it before any American creditors were able to do their worst. The engine arrived in Liverpool docks in February 1972 and steamed light engine to Derby for a thorough overhaul.

Its main line debut in McAlpine's hands was doubleheading the 'Atlantic Venturers Express' on the North &West route with No 6000 on 22 September 1972.

A winter service was operated from 1 January 1973 but from the end of that summer it became a purely seasonal operation.

An independent station alongside the main station at Paignton, known as Queens Park, was opened to serve the Kingswear trains on the site of the old Park sidings.

The line, later marketed under several names including the Paignton & Dartmouth Steam Railway and now the Dartmouth Steam Railway & Riverboat Company, with its GWR locomotives and stock, proved an instant hit with holidaymakers, and is still the only heritage line to pay a regular dividend to shareholders.

Motive power was provided by the larger locomotives from the Dart Valley stable, with engines being regularly exchanged between the two lines.

Enter the Moorsline

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway Preservation Society was formed in 1967, two years after the Beeching Axe fell on theWhitby- Pickering line.

The society began negotiations with BR for the purchase of the line.

A succession of open weekends and steam galas were held during the early 1970s.

The society NYMRPS transformed itself into the North York Moors Historical Railway Trust Ltd as a charitable trust.

Purchase of the line was completed and the necessary LRO obtained, giving powers to operate the line, which took on its first heritageera paid employee in 1972 and the following year was formally opened by the Duchess of Kent as the North YorkshireMoors Railway, withmuch of the traction provided by the North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group.

The first public train ran on 1 May 1973 behind NER P3 No 2392, which was allowed to run from Grosmont to Pickering, although at that stage regular services south of Goathland were operated by a DMU to a temporary platform at High Mill, Pickering.

Through services ran over the entire length of the line from 24 May 1975.

It went on to become one of the biggest success stories of all, helped in part by its use as location filming for the TV series Heartbeat, and carrying 350,000 passengers in 2009.

The Wight way

Draconian though it may have seemed at the time, the BR steam ban certainly had an influence in shaping the future of steam preservation.

While many lineside enthusiasts finally shelved their Ian Allan abc spotters' guides and accepted that the steam age had come to an end, others were determined that it would not be so, and set about creating steam havens with a vengeance.

One railway which effectively broke the ban was the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. Its forerunner, theWight Locomotive Society, having secured an engine, LSWR O2 0-4-4T No W24 Calbourne, and some stock, the society had eventually settled on a length of redundant line.

When it was time to move engine and stock from the closed Newport station to the new base at Havenstreet in 1971, there was little alternative but to steam the engine and use it to haul the stock.

Within a few weeks, volunteers were running a limited service on the 15⁄8-mile length betweenWootton and Havenstreet.

The rebirth of the Great Central There were many in the preservation movement who were convinced that the steam ban was here to stay, or even if it was lifted, steam had no real future on Britain's national network.

Following the decision to close the last trunk route to be built in the UK, the Great Central Railway's London Extension, in 1969, a group of enthusiasts met in the waiting room at Rugby Central station.

The Main Line Preservation Group, renamed the Main Line Steam Trust in 1971 when it became a charity, was formed, its aim being to preserve a length of double track main line where heritage steam trains could run at main line speeds in an authentic setting.

At first, it was planned to restore the entire route from Nottingham (Arkwright Street) to Rugby Central, but it soon became clear that was aiming way too high. Two shorter sections of the Great Central were considered, one based at Lutterworth (Leicester to Rugby) and one at Loughborough (Leicester to Nottingham). Part of the latter was finally chosen, and an office was rented at Loughborough Central in 1970 so that the restoration of the derelict station and track could start.

The group bought the site for around £75,000 in 1971 and secured Loughborough yard the following year, when the first coaches arrived.

The first open day was held in 1973, with rides behind small industrial locomotives being offered. On 30 September that year, 'Black Five' No 5231 hauled the first passenger train from Loughborough to Quorn &Woodhouse and back, the line being rented from BR..

By 1976, passenger trains were running as far as Rothley, as negotiations to buy the line from BR continued in earnest with the threat of ripping much of it up not far away. Again, industrial tank engines were the mainstay of motive power, not exactly what the revivalists had had in mind at the outset. The days of main line classics in regular service was still many years off.

The Great Central Railway saw two big engines arrive from Barry scrapyard in 1973/4 in the shape of BulleidWest Country Pacific No 34039 Boscastle and BR 8P Pacific No 71000 Duke of Gloucester. Not only did the MLST seem to be project impossible, but it became home to the engine widely regarded as project impossible. The Duke was originally earmarked for the National Collection, but only its cylinders and Caprotti valve gear had been displayed in the Science Museum, sectioned to show the inner workings. No 71000 not only needed a major overhaul, it also needed a brand new set of cylinders and motion. Nothing like this had ever been attempted by volunteer preservationists.

In 1976, a public limited company, later Great Central Railway plc, was formed to buy the track and land.

More stirrings in the north

Morecambe GP and lifelong enthusiast Dr Peter Beet had become involved in the early days of both the Middleton and Keighley &Worth Valley Railways, and in April 1967, he bought the first locomotive of his own, Ivatt 2-6-0 No 46441, and began working on it inside Carnforth shed, then still a BR depot, applying his 'own' livery, LMS crimson lake, which it had never carried but which held such fond memories for him.

During a drink in a pub in Morecambe one night with some patients and Roger Taylor, a Rochdale solicitor and railway modeller, the conversation turned to the Ulverston-Lakeside branch and its closure. It was suggested to Peter that he used his engine to try to save the branch.

So with Morecambe accountant John Parkin, he formed the Lakeside Railway Estates Company Ltd and started raising funds.

In 1968, Peter was instrumental in saving six 'Black Fives' for preservation as the end of BR main line steam neared.

In March 1968, Flying Scotsman and Oliver Cromwell hauled two specials from Manchester to Carnforth and hundreds of people were allowed into the shed. Peter seized the opportunity to distribute a brochure on the Lakeside branch and recruited many potential shareholders."

An outline price of £75,000 was agreed for the former Furness Railway eight-mile Plumpton Junction-Lakeside branch, which had closed to passengers in 1964 and to freight in 1967.

However, the revivalists were halted in their tracks by a road improvement scheme involving the A590 which runs over the formation at Haverthwaite. If the road was built as planned, it would cut the line in half, and despite lengthy lobbying and negotiations with the powers that be, that is exactly what happened.

The situation divided enthusiasts. Some wanted to continue with the Lakeside plans regardless, while others looked at buying the by-then redundant Carnforth shed.Around 90 per cent of the shareholders voted for Carnforth, and so Steamtownmuseum was born.

However, a breakaway group led by Austin and Charlie Maher and Jim Morris formed a company and negotiated to buy the upper 3½ miles of the Lakeside branch. They had bought a Fairburn 4MT 2-6-4T each (Nos 42073 and 42085) with Peter's help and were given until October 1969 to reach Lakeside before the southern half of the branch was ripped up, severing the main line connection permanently.

The top half of the line reopened on 2 May 1973 as the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway, ex-Courtaulds large Peckett 0-4-0ST Caliban hauling the first trains, and with its connection to the Windermere steamers, became profitable.

The long and winding road

It took 13 years for would-be revivalists of the Kent & Sussex Light Railway to run their first public trains. The Kent & East Sussex Railway Preservation Society was set up soon after the line closed in 1961, fighting many battles to save the line from being torn up.

However, the breakthrough came only when the revivalists agreed to drop their plans for the Bodiam-Robertsbridge section with three road crossings. The present registered charity took over the line in 1973, and the first two miles between Tenterden and Rolvenden opened on 3 February 1974.

Straight and narrow

In 1969, paper manufacturer Bowaters offered the lease of its 2ft 6in gauge system at Sittingbourne, the last steam-operated industrial narrow gauge line in Britain, to the Locomotive Club of Great Britain for preservation as an operational concern.

As a result, the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway came into existence, opening at Easter 1970.

The SKLR acquired some of the locomotives and stock, while others went to the new Whipsnade and Umfolozi Railway, which opened atWhipsnade Zoo on 26 August 1970 and is today known as the Great Whipsnade Railway, running through several animal paddocks.

A similar situation existed at Leighton Buzzard, where in 1967 volunteers under the banner of the Iron Horse Railway Preservation Society reached agreement with the owner of a 2ft gauge line which carried sand from local pits to the main line railway south of the town at Grovebury sidings.

The first diesel-hauled enthusiast special ran on 3 March 1968, and marked the start of the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway Society. Steam-powered regular services started in June 1968.

The last sand train ran on the railway in 1969, although several quarries continued to use the lines within their quarries. Later repackaged at the Leighton Buzzard Railway, it flourished during the 70s and eventually built up one of the finest collections of narrow gauge locomotives and stock in England.

A big narrow gauge landmark occurred on 12 March 1974, when theWelshpool & Llanfair Light Railway obtained the freehold of its line from British Rail for just £1,000.

Narrow gauge on standard gauge routes

The success of the pioneerWelsh narrow gauge lines as heritage railways led to the demand for such lines outstripping supply.

There were simply no more lines to preserve, although theWelsh Highland and even the Corris were seen as possible targets. There was plenty of abandoned standard gauge trackbed in the principality though and it was a relatively simple matter to lay a narrow gauge line on it.

First though was the Llanberis Lake Railway using the trackbed of the 4ft gauge Padarn Railway, opening in 1971, followed by a section of the GWR Ruabon to Barmouth line relaid as the Bala Lake Railway, opening in 1972, both using motive power in the shape of Quarry Hunslet 0-4-0STs from the closed slate mines of NorthWales.

At the same time, a 3ft gauge section of tramway was laid on the LSWR Seaton branch in Dorset and opened as the Seaton Tramway, using ex-Eastbourne tramcars. These projects led the way for a number of narrow gauge lines on standard gauge trackbeds in various parts of Britain over the next few years.

Winners and losers

A variety of new schemes met with differing degrees of success.

The Bristol Suburban Railway saw potential in the ex-Midland Railway route between Bristol, Mangotsfield and Bath Green Park. Sadly, while there is little doubt this would have been a thriving commuter route today had it survived, only a small section was saved, today's Avon Valley Railway, which has its headquarters at Bitton. An early arrival for restoration was LMS 'Black Five' 4-6-0 No 45379.

A potentially much bigger scheme involved Derby Corporation, which in 1969 decided to preserve a length of line dedicated to the history of theMidland Railway. Locomotives were purchased from Barry scrapyard and initially restoration commenced at DerbyWorks while a suitable site could be located.

These were three LMS'Jinty' 0-6-2Ts and BR Standard Caprotti 5MT No 73129, while one last engine was purchased from BR, the remains of another 'Jinty' 0-6-0T No 47564, which had served as a stationary boiler, with little else attached to it.

Eventually, 3½ miles of the Pye Bridge- Ambergate line which had closed in 1968 was selected, although the station at Butterley had been removed and all that remained at Swanwick Junction was a 100ft-high slag heap.

Derbyshire County Council later offered support, but withdrew along with the corporation because of lack of funds. The volunteers who had been brought in decided to carry on and formed theMidland Railway Company Limited on 20 February 1973, beginning work that year with Butterley as its headquarters. The Dean Forest Railway Society was formed in 1970 to preserve the GWR Lydney to Parkend branch, even though it was still open for goods traffic.

Its first steam open day took place in October 1971, with Peckett locomotive Uskmouth hauling brake van rides on sidings; but it would be another 15 years before it could buy the line. In the meantime, locomotives from Barry scrapyard made their home on the line in the shape of GWR 2-6-2Ts No 5541 and 4-6-0 No 7812 ErlestokeManor.

The Stour Valley Railway set out to save the remains of the GERMarks Tey to Bury St Edmunds line, now truncated at Sudbury, and established its base at Chappell &Wakes Colne station, adjacent to the impressive viaduct over the River Stour. Perhaps uniquely, 40 years on, train services continue to operate and flourish. The line never did close, but the scheme survived at the station to become the East Anglian Railway Museum.

The Embsay & Grassington Railway Preservation Society was formed in October 1968 when the former Yorkshire Dales Railway branch from Skipton to Grassington was threatened with closure. It remained open for traffic, and the society instead looked at adjacent routes, changing its name to the Yorkshire Dales Railway Society in 1969.

In 1970, the society rented Embsay station while raising money to buy a length of track.

Eventually, just 880 yards was saved, from Embsay Junction up to a point just on the Ilkley side of Embsay station near to where the spur into Haw Bank quarry was located.

Early basic heritage operations included two formerManchester South Junction & Altrincham electric railway trailer cars sandwiched between two steam locomotives.

The East Lancashire Railway Preservation Society was formed in 1968 with a view to preserving a section of the former East Lancashire Railway from Stubbins Junction to Accrington, focusing on a section of line near Helmshore. 'Black Five'No 44806 very briefly took up residence at Helmshore near Accrington in 1970.

However, with no progress being made, when passenger traffic stopped on the Rawtenstall branch in 1972, it became the target.

The society headquarters was switched from Helmshore Station to Bury where, in a former East Lancashire Railway goods shed, a small museum was set up.

The LongmoorMilitary Railway, an ideally situated self-contained railway system with potential to be a railway in its own right and a centre for main line operations in the south, was defeated, largely by nimbyism. The local residents association did not want a steam railway on their doorstep; they staged a highly successful campaign to defeat the proposals and by 1971, the scheme was dead. The preserved locomotives were dispersed, Clan Line to Ashford, Blackmore Vale to the Bluebell and David Shepherd's engines to his new project in East Somerset. The line's flagship engine,WD 2- 10-0 No 600 Gordon, transferred to the Transport Trust, found a home on the Severn Valley Railway; preserved lines no longer just ran small tank engines!

After looking at literally dozens of sites, international wildlife artist David Shepherd bought Cranmore station, also part of the GWR empire, and a section of the closed GWR Cheddar Valley line on which to run his two locomotives, BR Standard 9F 2-10-0 No 92203 Black Prince and BR Standard 4MT 4-6-0 No 75029 The Green Knight.

Marketed as the East Somerset Railway, the original name of the line prior to its absorption into the Swindon empire, heritage era passengers were first carried in 1973, with short brake van rides being offered, a starting point for many of our preserved lines.

There was still room for a major railway in central southern England though, and the arrival of SR N class 2-6-0 No 31874 at Alresford station in 1974 heralded the birth of theMid-Hants Railway.

A similar set-up to Longmoor was briefly envisaged atMarket Overton, Lincolnshire. The HonWilliamMcAlpine, having acquired No 4472 Flying Scotsman in 1972, and also a share in No 4079 Pendennis Castle, needed a base. There was a network of branches serving ironstone quarries in south Lincolnshire, which closed quickly due to far better quality ore being imported. The ironstone quarry lines around Market Overton were a relatively self-contained system, with a locomotive shed.

But the lines were just not conducive to the operation of big engines; there were no suitable main line 'approved routes' in the area, and the practicalities of maintaining a connection straight on to a high-speed Inter-City main line quickly showed the scheme to be impractical. It closed in 1974, and locomotives and stock

moved to Carnforth, starting a very productive association between that centre,McAlpine and No 4472, which would last for many years.An interesting resident of Market Overton was ex- Barry Bulleid Pacific No 35029 Ellerman Lines, which was sectioned and externally restored to show the workings of a steam locomotive.

Perhaps predictably, there was an early attempt to preserve part of the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway at Radstock from 1969, when the S&D Railway Circle established a base in the station and engine shed which also housed several items of rolling stock, including a gem which had survived at Barry, Somerset & Dorset 7F 2-8-0 No 53808, as well as LMS 0-6-0T No 47493.

Steam open days were held to generate funds, a small museum set up, and in 1973 the Somerset & Dorset RailwayMuseum Trust was granted charitable status. Its management committee and all its members were held in common with the Circle.

The S&D associated Light Railway Company made plans to reopen ½ mile of the S&D from Radstock toWrithlington, where it was proposed to construct a mining museum.However, lack of support and finance saw it fizzle out.During the winter of 1974/5, the museum at Radstock was disbanded, and most of the rolling stock at Radstock was moved to theWest Somerset Railway where a permanent S&D museum was established atWashford station.

London Transport steam

Up to the summer of 1971, steam was still used on a public railway system in Britain, if only at the dead of night. London Transport had always used locomotives for engineering and other duties and had standardised on a fleet of GWR 0-6-0PTs. There was however the daily rubbish train from Neasden depot toWatford tip, which was the only time the engines were easily witnessed by the public. At this late stage, there was never any real question of any of these engines being scrapped. On withdrawal after a ceremonial last train on 6 June 1971, the last survivors were eagerly snapped up for preservation.

More industrial

It was also inevitable that former main line engines which survived in industrial service, or at least ownership, into the 1970s would be rewarded with immortality. The catalogue of engines saved in the early 1970s from this source is impressive, and of course pales into insignificance by comparison with the actual industrial designs of all shapes and sizes which entered preservation.

Engines from all three major Southern Railway constituents were saved in the 1960s; SECR P class 0-6-0T No 31556 Pride of Sussex moved from Robertsbridge to the nearby Kent & East Sussex Railway, LSWR B4 0-4-0T No 30096 Corrall Queen from Northam, Southampton to the Bluebell Railway, and somewhat out of area, LBSCR E1 0-6-0T No 110 Burgundy from CannockWood colliery to Chasewater.

The north-east coalfield in particular had used something bigger than 0-6-0 tanks in industrial service; some gems had disappeared as late as the 1960s, but the extensive system centred on the NCB's Philadelphia shed in Co Durham was the last bastion of 0-6-2Ts up to early 1970.

Some had been of Taff Vale Railway origin, others built for the Lambton Hetton & Joicey Collieries, but of similar designs to 'main line' engines. The last TVR 0-6-2T No 85 (NCB No 52) was saved by the Keighley &Worth Valley Railway, while Robert Stephenson and Kitson 'Lambton tanks'Nos 5 and 29 respectively were purchased for use on the North YorkshireMoors Railway.

Sadly, an equally deserving 0-6-2T was accidentally scrapped in the north-west. A scrap dealer turned up to scrap an Austerity 0-6-0ST at the NCB'sWalkden workshops and instead cut up a priceless North Staffordshire Railway 0-6-2T, earmarked for the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway.

The NCB had used a number of GWR pannier tanks and in the early 1970s, despite their dubious condition, Tyseley acquired No 9600 fromMerthyr Vale colliery while the Severn Valley acquired No 7714 from Penallta, and the much bigger No 1501 from Coventry colliery. At the end of 1974, that just left No 7754 still nominally in NCB service at Mountain Ash.

An older tank which was once in GWR stock was Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley Railway Avonside 0-6-0ST Pontyberem,which took up residence at the GreatWestern Society's Taunton base. One LMS engine purchased from industrial service was the orange 'Jinty'No 47445 which moved from Crigglestone opencast site to Derby.

Duchess and Scot steamed

The steam centre at Bressingham, despite its landlocked position, was becoming a force to be reckoned with, and not only acquired two of Butlins LMS express engines plus their SR counterparts, initially on loan, but also very quickly steamed them. The sea air took its toll on these engines, and their ongoing maintenance outweighed their value to Butlins, which in any case was now suffering from competition from overseas package holidays.

No 6100 Royal Scot and No 6233 Duchess of Sutherland gave footplate rides in Norfolk, and it should be remembered that at this time there were only three Class 8 Pacifics in occasional main line action, two A4s and an A3.

They were not joined by a Merchant Navy until 1974 and a Princess in 1976, but the Duchess steadfastly stayed in Norfolk.

Other notable engines steamed in the first half of the 1970s were the Scottish Railway Preservation Society's Caledonian 0-4-4T No 419 at Falkirk and LNER A2 Pacific No 532 Blue Peter at Leeds Neville Hill, which ran to Tyseley and back for an open day in 1974.

Also in Norfolk, LNER V2 2-6-2 No 4771 Green Arrow was steamed at Norwich in 1972 by a team led by the late Bill Harvey.

Also LNER K1 2-6-0 No 2005, originally only purchased to provide a spare boiler for The Great Marquess. Even engines purchased in complete condition direct from BR before 1968 could now take five years or so to return to steam.

The first three purchases from Barry scrapyard had been steamed relatively quickly by 1970, but only five more ex-Barry engines had been steamed by the end of 1974, four of which had main works overhauls.

One was LMS Jubilee No 5690 Leander, purchased with the intention of it becoming a regular main line performer and overhauled at Derby works, co-incidentally alongside Flying Scotsman. It quickly took over from Bahamas as Dinting's main line flagship.

The only ex-Barry engine steamed within three years exclusively by volunteers was SR S15 4-6-0 No 30841 (named Greene King) at Chappell &Wakes Colne.

The other ex-Barry engines steamed during the period were Nos 4588 and 7827 LydhamManor for the Dart Valley / Torbay, and No 47357 for theMidland Railway Project at Derby. The DVR / Torbay also acquired GWR 2-8-0T No 5239 and BR Standard 2-6-4T No 80064.

National Collection

One last non-Barry scrapyard express locomotive became available. The East Anglian Locomotive Preservation Society had tried to secure one of BR's last Britannia Pacifics in 1967 but failed.

Now they were given the opportunity to purchase Britannia itself. The National Collection now effectively had No 70013, popularly considered as BR's last steam engine, and consequently offered No 70000, BR's first steam engine, for sale.

Subsequently purchased by the Britannia Locomotive Company, restoration was commenced on the Severn Valley Railway.

The National Collection continued to allocate engines on loan, having found itself with a huge collection of stock, which it could never possibly hope to display properly. However, in 1974, the Museum of British Transport at Clapham was closed. A new and much more ambitious National Railway Museum was being built, and after much discussion, the site chosen was at York.

Barry opens the flood gates

Woodhams yard at Barry was the last remaining source of engines for the railways now being reopened which had set their sights on fairly extensive passenger services; but while the first two purchases from Barry were in virtually aswithdrawn condition and had been returned to steam in a matter of months, those purchased after 1970 had deteriorated rapidly and would take several years to return to service.

The SVR and its supporters were good customers; it was going to need far more engines than it had managed to collect by its reopening in 1970. It even experimented with a 2-6-2T imported from Germany, but it proved to be out of gauge even on a GWR route.

The GreatWestern Society and its supporters were also good customers, andWoodhams could provide the classes which the GWS had not managed to save by 1966.

The Standard Gauge Steam Trust at Tyseley and its supporters also bought engines from Barry while they could.

The centre at Quainton Road saw an influx of big engines from Barry.

The Dowty Steam Centre at Ashchurch became home to unique ex-Barry SR Q class 0-6-0 No 30541, but the GWS moved its two locomotives, 4-6-0 No 7808 Cookham Manor and 0-6-2T No 6697 to Didcot The Keighley &Worth Valley was the perhaps surprising destination for further big engines from Barry. Although only a five-mile branch with no prospect of extending, it encountered a dramatic upsurge in traffic after the release of the film 'The Railway Children' in 1970, and felt the need for big engines.

Carnforth also saw some big engines purchased from Barry to supplement the LMS 'Black Fives', but it also saw some big name engines take up residence, such as Flying Scotsman, Green Arrow and Pendennis Castle.

Barry engines for new lines

For many of the new lines, it was either a case of persuading owners to move engines from existing lines or buy from Barry knowing that they would be a long time restoring them.

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway was content to rely on NELPG's engines plus some industrials and did not actively pursue too many Barry acquisitions, just BR 2-6-4T No 80135 and GWR 0-6-2T No 6619 being purchased by members for restoration and eventual use.

It was predictable that among the industrial archaeology of the Ironbridge area, a railway preservation project would be established, and a steam locomotive duly arrived from Barry at a site at Horsehay in the shape of GWR 0-6-2T No 5619.

There were two traditional steam sheds in the heritage portfolio, Didcot and Carnforth, which were joined by a third, at Southport, Lancashire. It played host to a variety of engines including LMS 0-6-0T No 47298 and BR Standard 4MT 2-6-0 No 76079.

There was still not really an appetite for the purchase of big main line engines as restoration projects in their own right.Most engines purchased for future heritage line use were tank engines or mixed traffic class 4s and 5s.

With only a couple of exceptions, the few class 7 and 8s purchased in the early 1970s were either as possible sources of spares or as very long-term projects.

So as 1974 drew to a close, the route mileage that had been reopened as heritage railways had increased dramatically over the previous five years and it had been proved that a steam line could be much more than a five-mile branch. Steam had established itself back on the main line, and the preservation movement could look forward to some exciting times ahead.