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MEMBERSHIP MATTERS

As a result of the publicity about the purchase of "Stowe", we have 14 new members. Our total Annual Membership is now 117- the Life Membership is 178. May I remind Annual Members it's subscription renewal time. You will find the appropriate form enclosed with this Newsletter. Due to the generosity of many of you in adding a donation to your subscription, the subscription for 2001 remains unchanged at £8.00 but we would be most grateful for any donations you may care to send with your renewal. I look forward to hearing from you .

GEORGE BINNS

TREASURER'S REPORT

2 000 has proved to be an exceptional year as far as fundraising and expenditure is concerned. Excluding the Autumn "Stowe" appeal, the position at the end of November was as follows:-

The main events for the year were the sale of the "Sir Dinadan" nameplate for £12,117 (£13,000 less commission) and S15 830 for £17,000; the proceeds from these sales went into the purchase of "Stowe" - we actually had to borrow £10,000, for a short period, until the nameplate was sold and proceeds banked. We have been asked not to disclose the purchase price for "Stowe" but it was a substantial, but fair, sum. I am also seeking clarification as to our liability for capital gains tax on the sale of the two assets.

STEVE PILCHER

Front cover: On its renaming day, 13 June 1981, "Stowe" is seen at Horsted Keynes. In addition to the crew, SC Townroe is also on the footplate. After training at the Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le- Willows, he joined the Southern Railway in 1932 as a member of Maunsell's staff. Later, he was a District Motive Power Superintendent in the BR organisation and also an author of several books on Southern locomotives.

[MIKEFRACKIEWICZ]

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THE SALE OF THE "SIR DINADAN" NAMEPLATE

As mentioned in the purchase of "Stowe" report, the sale of the "Sir Dinadan" nameplate was a key part of the fundraising package. Naturally we wanted to obtain the best possible price for the plate and it seemed that the logical way to do this was to put it up for auction. Sheffield Railway Auctions have a high profile presence in the field of railwayana auctions and appear to raise good prices so Ray Bellingham contacted the proprietor, Ian Wright, who suggested a reserve of £13,000 and the plate was duly delivered to him by Peter Jessop.

There then was a period of about two months before the auction came up at Hendon. As Treasurer, I went along on the day to watch proceedings and met a few other familiar faces such as David Jones, Ray Vistucis and Brian Peacock.

Just the actual viewing session for an auction is a delight, with all the station signs, numberplates etc. Occasionally you stop and think to yourself- I've got something just like that I paid 30 bob for at Collectors Corner - wonder how much it will fetch? What really caught my eye was a collection of Terence Cuneo 1960's BR advertising posters - beautiful pieces of artwork. If you have got one tucked up in your loft, do start to take care of it, they are now worth hundreds of pounds.

Anyway the auction duly started at 11,00 sharp. Ian Wright is obviously a professional of many years experience, He knows just how to tickle the audience's interest, drop in a bit of humour and yet move on briskly - particularly as he had 400 lots to get through. As Treasurer, I was just a tad concerned. As well as taking up a loan of £20,000 to buy "Stowe", we had also taken up an extra £10,000 loan, until the nameplate was sold. No sale of nameplate - another little money problem to sort out.

The "Sir Dinadan" plate was the first nameplate of the day to come up for auction. Prior to that, it had mostly been items for under a £1,000 and bidding had been quite competitive. Ian Wright proceeded to start the bidding at £11,000, with a postal bid he had on his book, It very quickly became obvious that despite there being about 400 people present, there was only one person in the room bidding for the plate. The bids went up in £100 stages and my heart began to sink; if there are only two bidders will we get to the £13,000? Gradually the bids got to £12,000 and luckily they kept going. £12,200, £12,400, £12,600, £12,700, £12,800,...,. yes , yes, yes I thought - just two more stages to go......... £12,900........ £13,000. And then it all stopped and the plate was duly sold for £13,000.

But ...it had reached its reserve, we had got a firm sale, and for a value that was far in excess of the £5,000 that the same auctioneer had valued it at when the plate was bequeathed to us in 1996. Any stockbroker who could have obtained 160% returns on investment over 4 years would be doing very well, I think we have seen mention of other "King Arthur" plates fetching slightly more but our "Sir Dinadan" plate was "face restored" - i.e. cleaned, polished and painted. It appears today's collectors like them in unrestored condition. I suppose we should have rubbed a bit of coal dust and grime into it!

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At the end of the day Mr Woods, who bequeathed us the plate has done us proud. His legacy has helped us with about 50% of the costs to date on the work with 1638 and the sale of the plate has been a useful part of the fundraising package to help secure "Stowe". Thank you again Mr Woods.

STEVE PILCHER

THE "STOWE" APPEAL

The purchase of Stowe has been funded from a variety of sources that includes two very substantial donations by members, £29,117 from the sale of 830 and the "King Arthur" nameplate, approximately £18,000 from the Society's own funds and a £20,000 loan from a member.

In our Autumn Newsheet we mentioned that we had had to borrow £30,000 to buy "Stowe". As mentioned in the Treasurer's report, £10,000 of this funding was until the nameplate had been sold and this loan has now been repaid. The main focus now for the "Stowe" appeal is to raise enough funds to pay off the remaining £20,000 and leave us with some working capital to keep on with our projects. However, we expect our restoration costs next year to be modest as we should not be buying much material.

We had a magnificent response from members to the appeal in the Autumn Newsheet and so far over 70 members have sent in donations totalling approximately £9,000. These have ranged from £5 to one particularly generous one of £3,000. This has given us enough to consider paying off £5,000 of the loan now and leave us enough to keep going on 1638 next year. In addition, 13 members have signed up to making a regular monthly donation and this should raise a very useful £130 per month. Some members sent in some very encouraging letters of support which were very heartening to read. As ever it is not necessarily the size of donation that matters but the sentiment with which it's given. We have had some very generous donations from retired railway men who have fond memories of "Schools" class locomotives and their letters were particularly welcome.

We do need to clear the remaining £15,000 loan within the next four years. We have approximately 300 members - can we ask those who have not sent anything yet to please consider doing so now to help us clear this loan as soon as possible. We realise members' financial circumstances vary greatly - but every little bit will help and will be gratefully received. Please do not leave it to the regular few. I should add that all members who make a donation will receive a particularly elegant certificate of appreciation in colour, printed on parchment paper as a "thank you". A big thank you to Peter Jessop who has produced this at no cost to the Society.

STEVE PILCHER

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1638 RESTORATION REPORT

Melvyn Frohnsdorff, Paul Thorp and the regular Sunday volunteers have been romping along with the tender tank construction work over the Autumn, As we go to press, both sides were up and the whole vehicle is now looking like a tender. Ultimately the tender will have a curved in top rave as per "Stowe". After quite a bit of consultation, it has been decided to fit this as a separate piece. It might have been possible to have put the side and top piece up as one large lump and bend the top in. On balance, it was considered simpler to add it as a separate piece and weld it on as a final job.

One tricky job was inserting the coal space. This proved to be quite a fiddly job. Where the sides meet the coal space deck a curved piece of plate has had to be specially profiled in to fit - in order to match the original design which can be seen inside "Stowe's" tender tank. We could have used straight plate but it would not have looked right.

The steel plate for the sides arrived in September and they were big sheets - 6 metres by 3 metres and cost over £300 each. The first was offered up in October. Once in place Melvyn needed several days to complete all the seams and tacking onto the internal framework. A lot of care was taken to keep the side straight and avoid having a rippling effect, This will pay big dividends in the appearance once it is painted up into topcoat finish. Several of our weekend regulars have been involved in cleaning out the interior after each welding session to prevent the tender bottom from getting all rusty. A very thorough job of cleaning and painting the interior in red oxide primer and a long lasting bridge paint specification top coat has also been undertaken. The second side went up on Friday 24th November and Melvyn then needed to spend another 3 to 4 days welding it up to the interior framework.

The final jobs will include welding on the top rave areas, fitting the already fabricated toolboxes and welding on platework onto the tender top area behind the coal space. It is hoped that a fair amount of this work will be completed by Christmas. So hopefully the job will be a good 90% complete by the year end, which is not bad progress for a gang working out in the open in all weathers (certainly the very damp Autumn has not helped!) and mostly just on a Sunday, with a few extra mid weekdays thrown in.

In the meantime, Frank Glue has taken the bit between the teeth and set about removing stays inside the firebox - in those areas where the outside plate is defective and will need to be replaced. It will be a long old job and we are grateful to Frank for getting started. However, it represents the first part of the big job of tackling the boiler's problems and hopefully once the tender is complete the Sunday gang will be able to move across and start to tackle some of the variety of jobs that are required.

STEVE PILCHER

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[MELVYN FROHNSDORFF]

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847 UPDATE

R odney Packham, Adrian Pinkess and others have been able to get back to 847 and have removed all boiler fittings and blanked off the openings. Rodney has made a good start on removing the handrails so the boiler cladding can be taken off easily when a boiler lift is possible. Further tidying up work has taken place to make the boiler more presentable - but there is a limit to the amount of work that can be tackled until the boiler can be lifted.

As ever our thanks are given to all the above mentioned and everyone else (particularly Paul Skinner, Barry Smith, Clive Bean and David Jones) who have put in so much time this year to move the projects forward. We always offer our thanks to Keith Sturt and the workshop staff for their advice and support. This year their involvement has been particularly welcome and has been a key part of ensuring work has gone so well on the tender tank.

STEVE PILCHER

"STOWE" - AND THE WAY FORWARD

Well what is there to say? The final purchase transaction was completed in October and we are now the proud owners of the fastest "Schools" Class locomotive. We are also pleased to announce that Lord Montagu's son, Ralph, has agreed to become the President of our Society. The Society has travelled a long way from being the owners of one Maunsell engine (in ex Barry condition) in 1969 to now being responsible for the most comprehensive collection of Maunsell locomotives in the country. Once the restoration of 1638 is complete we can hopefully have a bit of an easier time overhauling the locomotives rather than tackling the expensive and time consuming job of restoring ex Barry hulks - and therefore see our locomotives working more often.

As we go to press, a formal meeting had just been held with representatives of the Bluebell Railway to map out a way forward that can involve a Maunsell locomotive going into the works when 80151 and the Dukedog are completed, i.e. hopefully at some stage next year. The main issue for us is how to complete 1638, progress work on 847 and see a start on "Stowe". As far as the Railway is concerned there are also other groups who are keen to see progress on their projects - e.g. "Sir Archibald Sinclair" which has made a lot of progress but can only be finished off by being allocated time in the workshop. The conclusion of the meeting was that once the current workshop workload has been completed, a Maunsell locomotive will go in but at this stage it is not possible to say when. In addition it was agreed that the Society can make a start on "Stowe"s tender once 1638's tender is complete.

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No 928 "STOWE" - A BRIEF HISTORY

T he first batch of "Schools" (or V Class as they were originally known before acquiring names), E900 to E909, entered service between March and August 1930. The order was to be divided between Eastleigh and Ashford Works but, in the event, all ten were constructed at Eastleigh.

"Stowe" was one of the second batch which consisted of twenty locomotives. This batch was ordered from Eastleigh in March 1931, the building of "Stowe" being completed in June 1934. Sent initially to Fratton depot, the locomotive, with others of its Class, worked on the Waterloo - Portsmouth Harbour route until electrification of the Portsmouth Direct route in July 1937, It was then sent, with other Fratton "Schools", to Bournemouth to work the Waterloo -Weymouth expresses.

During its time at Bournemouth (July 1938), it was repainted in malachite green having been originally outshopped in the Maunsell passenger livery of sage green, Wartime black livery was applied in April 1942 and malachite green re-acquired in June 1947. Noted at Bournemouth in November 1945, it was transferred, in company with 929 and 930, to Brighton in November 1946 to work the Brighton -Salisbury/Bournemouth services. The fuel crisis of 1947 resulted in the cancellation of the through trains (Brighton - Plymouth and Brighton - Cardiff), so with no suitable work Nos. 928 and 929 were transferred to St. Leonards and later to Bricklayers Arms.

Renumbered 30928 in June 1948, the locomotive and its fellow wanderer 929 (not then renumbered) were transferred to Stewarts Lane late in 1948 to work the Newhaven boat trains. Alas, this was all too brief a spell as, with the appearance of Bulleid's three electric locomotives, the boat trains were worked by the latter from May 1949 and the two "Schools" returned to Bricklayers Arms.

In June 1949 "Stowe" appeared in BR lined black livery. August 1957 saw the locomotive's first visit to Ashford Works (all previous shoppings had been undertaken by Eastleigh) and then, in the Summer of 1959, the black livery disappeared to be replaced by BR Brunswick Green. The final transfer was to Brighton in November 1961 to be followed, a year later in November 1962, by the withdrawal of 30928 from service.

Noted stored at Stewarts Lane in July 1963, the locomotive was purchased by Lord Montagu and taken by rail to Millbrook in February 1964, thence by road to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.. There it was put on static display with three Pullman coaches. In 1972, planned extensions to the Motor Museum meant that the locomotive and coaches had to move. For the locomotive, the move was to Cranmore on the East Somerset Railway where it stayed for several years.

In July 1980, "Stowe" arrived at Sheffield Park on extended loan and an overhaul was started. Less than a year later, on 13 June 1981, after a re-naming ceremony at Horsted Keynes with Lord Montagu present, the locomotive returned to traffic, From that date, through to its withdrawal for repairs late in 1990, it was always a pleasure to see "Stowe" at the head of a Bluebell Railway train.

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Pages 10&11

In the compilation of this brief history, I am pleased to acknowledge that the following sources have been consulted:

Locomotives of the Southern Railway Part 1, DL Bradley, RCTS, October 1975

"Stowe" booklet, Bluebell Railway Preservation Society, June 1981

The Schools 4-4-0s, DW Winkworth, George Allen and Unwin, 1982

IAN HAWKINS

30902 & 30933 -
THE "SCHOOLS" CLASS LOCOS THAT GOT AWAY..

The purchase of "Stowe" has triggered off all sorts of interesting conversations. One of our members, Peter Ellingworth, had a chat with me at the Giants of Steam day and subsequently sent me an article showing how Canterbury City Council, back in 1961, actively pursued the idea of purchasing and exhibiting 30933 "King's Canterbury" but sadly the idea fell through for lack of a suitable site.

Another member, Brian Ashby (who had been involved with the purchase of the Midland 0F half cab back in the mid 1960's) has assured me that a private individual tried to buy 30902 "Wellington" from Cohens of Kettering - who were happy to sell - however BR insisted on enforcing their no resale clause on the scrapyard. "Wellington" was one of the last three "Schools" withdrawn at the end of 1962 -and they were purchased by Cohens and only cut up in 1964 (see above).

Does anyone else know of any schemes for preserving "Schools" Class locomotives?

SWAPMEET 2000

The Bluebell Swapmeet is always an enjoyable event if you are interested in model railways or other railwayana. We have been very lucky with the weather for many years now and once again it was a grand weekend. Sadly we did not have a lot to sell but we managed to clear £75. Subsequently we have run the stall on three other occasions, along with David Jones's display material. The dates included the Giants of Steam Day and the Terrier's day in November. Together takings on these three days amounted to nearly £160 and we recruited two new members to boot as well so we are seriously thinking of repeating these next year. Second hand books, with a railway interest, sold well on these days as did aircraft magazines and old Backtrack magazines. If you have any of these items you are willing to donate, please get in touch with the Treasurer, or else see our volunteers down at Sheffield Park.

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LOCATION 1

The caption to the front cover photograph of Newsletter No.41 posed the question as to what S15 30837 was doing at Reading South shed in 1965. This provoked a miniature flurry of responses from both members and non-members of MLS. I am grateful to all those who took the trouble to write in. However, it has to be said that there were a few inconsistencies in the information provided so what follows may not be the last word on the subject.

The Locomotive Club of Great Britain ran a railtour called the "Wessex Downsman" on 4 April 1965 and a repeat tour on 2 May 1965, On both occasions 30837 worked the first leg from Waterloo to Reading General where 6963 "Throwley Hall" took over for the next leg to Bristol. "Hymek" 7007 and "Black 5" 44606 took over at this point and continued to Mangotsfield where the "Hymek" was detached and 44606 continued alone to Bath Green Park, The tour then continued over the Somerset and Dorset to Bournemouth, the locomotive in charge being "8F" 48309. The final leg was entrusted to 34051 "Winston Churchill" for the run back to Waterloo. The same locomotives were used on the repeat tour except that "Black 5" 44264 was used on its own for the Bristol-Mangotsfield-Bath Green Park leg.

After changing locomotives at Reading, the S15 ran back on to Reading South shed to turn before returning "light engine" to Feltham shed later in the morning. This leaves just one question unanswered, On which of the two possible dates was the cover photograph taken? Well, it's not possible to be absolutely certain but comparison with a Sid Nash photograph published in the 1960s would appear to favour the repeat tour (2 May 1965) as being the more likely.

As an aside, attempts were made to preserve 30837. A group made up of professional railwaymen from Feltham plus enthusiastic amateurs were very keen to do something but, alas, it all came to nothing and 30837 was scrapped.

LOCATION 2

The upper photograph on page 17 of Newsletter No.41 showed our very own Q Class on a passenger train in early BR days. this photograph was from the Steve Pilcher collection but details of date and place were unknown. The place, it has been suggested, is Sanderstead and the train is travelling in the Down direction. As for the date, it may be noted that 30541 still has snifting valves, suggesting 1950 or thereabouts.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2000

We had a useful discussion of a number of topics at the AGM in August. Mike Frackiewicz has kindly typed up a copy of the minutes of the meeting which you should find enclosed with this magazine. As mentioned in the Autumn Newsheet, negotiations re the purchase of "Stowe" were at a delicate stage at the time of the AGM and we were unable to discuss the subject openly at that meeting.

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WD 2-8-0 NUMBERPLATE 90144 FOR SALE

One of our members (and long time Bluebell driver), Gerry Butler, has very kindly donated a WD 2-8-0 numberplate that he has had since the 1970's. Some of you may well be aware that some WD 2-8-U's were based on the Southern Region in the 1950's - though I am not aware if 90144 was ever in our area, The numberplate is in unrestored, as withdrawn condition. There were two other WD 2-8-0 plates in the Sheffield Railwayana Auction at Hendon and they fetched £380 and £420. I gather this was somewhat on the high side.

We obviously want to sell on the plate for a good price to help with our fundraising but feel it would be appropriate if one of our members, or a member of the Bluebell loco department, had the chance to buy it. We already have had a couple of enquiries and what struck me as the best thing to do would be to invite sealed tender bids -i.e. if you are interested send your bid, to the Treasurer, in an envelope marked 90144, by 15th January 2001. One other Director and I will open all the envelopes together and the highest bidder will succeed in purchasing the plate. In order to ensure the Society gets a fair price for the plate we must impose a reserve of £250 -i.e. bids need to be over this figure. If we do not receive any bids over £250 then we will need to consider putting the plate into auction.

Anyway, I hope the prospect of acquiring a bit of genuine BR railwayana appeals and you will thus be helping our fundraising. Finally - thank you very much Gerry for this very generous donation - if anyone else wants to help out by donating something else of this nature - please feel free to get in touch.

STEVE PILCHER

PUBLICITY

Once the purchase of "Stowe" had been formally completed in October, we sent out a formal press release to all the major railway magazines and two good articles covering our work appeared in the December editions of Railway World and Railway Magazine. Heritage Railways tracked down the story from their own sources and an article appeared in their October 21-November21 magazine. As we went to press it was noted that the January edition of "Steam Railway" included a nice article on "Stowe". We would like to thank all those involved in the railway press for their coverage this year.

S15 No.830

After fairly lengthy negotiations with the Essex Locomotive Society over the sale of No.830, events moved rapidly to a conclusion in September. On the 28th of that month, the S15, with its tender chassis, left the Bluebell en route to its new owners. The two lorries which had brought visiting locomotive "92 Squadron" and its tender to the Bluebell were used to transfer the S15 and its tender chassis away.

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SLIDE SHOW TALKS

Arecent visitor suggested that we consider putting on a slide show talk in the Bluebell area and we are looking into the possibility of putting on one of David Jones's successful "From Scrap to Steam" talks in the Spring, in the Buffet at Sheffield Park. If you are interested in attending could you please send an s.a.e. to David and we could let you know a date once something has been fixed. David's address is: 3 Nutley Mill Road, Pevensey, East Sussex BN24 5PD. Steve Pilcher will also be doing a talk for the Gravesend Railway Society on Wednesday 10 October 2001 - more about that in the next magazine.

WANTED

Any good, sharp pictures of "Stowe" at work - either on the Bluebell or in BR/SR days.

A copy of Peter Cooper's book on S15's - someone has "borrowed" mine.

Any spare copies of the Bluebell's A5 colour brochure on "Stowe".

STEVE PILCHER

WILLIAM GLYN HOOLEY

Peter Jessop's series on the Maunsell Team came to end in the last Newsletter with the combined stories of "an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman". Unusually for Peter, he was unable to find a photograph of our Englishman, WG.Hooley, to complement his article even after spending a considerable time searching through various archives, including the National Railway Museum at York.

This omission can now be put right. Following receipt of a letter from member Tim Neal, I was able to contact Miss Megan Hooley, the elder daughter of WG.Hooley. In her initial response, Miss Hooley very kindly sent me several old photographs (one in a Drawing Office and two out in the country on what appears to be an outing of some kind) of railway employees. At the time of writing, Peter Jessop is attempting to identify the people involved.

By this stage, Miss Hooley's younger sister, Mrs Freda Grime, had found a photograph of their father which I was pleased to receive and which is printed on the page opposite. WG.Hooley is obviously on board ship to somewhere but where? His daughters think it could be the occasion of a visit to Switzerland with a group of locomotive experts, a visit which, they remember, gave their father a great deal of pleasure.

I am very grateful to WG.Hooley's two daughters for the time and trouble they have taken.

IANHAWKINS

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