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The Society's web site is: www.maunsell.org.uk

Peter Jessop does a very good job in keeping our web site up to date. Visit it if you can for all the latest restoration news plus much, much more. It's a veritable Maunsell feast and there are links to other sites that you may also find interesting.

Front cover: It hardly seems possible but it is 25 years since 1618 arrived at Sheffield Park after its move from Tenterden. A few weeks after its arrival, on July 23th 1977, it was photographed by David Idle on the Pump House siding while being readied for the day's work.

MEMBERSHIP MATTERS

Comparison with a year ago shows that there have been three new Life members and that four have transfened from Annual to Life membership. There has been an increase in the Annual membership of 14 so the total membership now stands at 323. This is very encouraging especially as most of the new members have joined after picking up a leaflet from the box by 1638. Seeing the work in progress has been a great incentive. Others, living further away, have joined through our web site.

I will recommend at the AGM that subscriptions for 2003 remain unchanged at £8 per annum and that Life membership stays at £120.

George Binns

TREASURER'S REPORT

2001 Accounts

You should find enclosed a set of audited accounts for 2001. It was a very good year with income exceeding £20,000. As a result we were able to fund

• finishing the work on 163 8's tender
• starting work on 928's tender
• purchasing a genuine ex "Schools" Class hydrostatic lubricator to fit to Stowe
• paying off the final £10,000 loan to buy Stowe
• starting the work required on 1638's motion prior to erection on the locomotive.

Hopefully the figures are self explanatory. One issue that is different from previous years is the mention of Directors' emoluments. Our Chairman has ceased to work full time for the Bluebell Railway. He offered to work two days a week for the Society, for a year, in order to undertake the machining work required on 1638's motion. The subject was discussed and agreed by the Directors as it seemed an excellent opportunity to get this essential work done in order to move the 1638 project forward.

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2002 Fundraising

As for 2002, we have so far had a good run of renewals and a few new Life members. We have also done well with donations.

The projects we want to fund this year are

• construction of 928's tender tank
• completion of the work on 1638's motion

as well as the usual costs of running the Society, eg Newsletters etc.

this year appear as follows:-

We therefore anticipate making a £2,000 loss but we are able to cover this from funds canied forward from last year.

Nevertheless we do need to press ahead with our fundraising. Before long, we will have to start giving thought to how the work on 1638's boiler is to be funded - so expect to see a tube appeal in the next Newsletter.

Finally it just remains for me to thank all those who have been so noble and generous in their donations this year. As I mentioned in the Winter Newsletter, please be assured that all contributions no matter how small or large do make a difference and are very much appreciated.

In particular, I need to thank the 36 members who have signed up to a regular donation by standing order to the Society. We are currently raising about £250 a month- roughly £3,000 a year-which is invaluable in underpinning our work and giving us the confidence to take on funding new jobs.

Steve Pilcher

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RESTORATION REPORT

As we go to press, the major work on reconstructing the new front of 928's tender frames is drawing to a close and we look on track to having the tender chassis re-wheeled by late Summer. In addition, Ray Bellingham continues to make good progress on 1638's motion, some serious work is taking place on 1638's boiler and significant repairs are being made to the PMV van - good progress on several fronts, all at once.

1638

Three good items of news. We now understand that 1638 will go into the works to be completed once the major overhaul of the Dukedog has been accomplished. In addition, our Chairman, Ray Bellingham, continues to make good progress with work on the motion. Also, Frank Glue is busy tackling some major work on the firebox.

Ray has now got the eight large bushes in place in the coupling and connecting rods and the connecting rods are now ready to go up on the locomotive. His attention is now focused on the cross heads and the smaller parts of the motion. The cross heads are sound but in need of quite a bit of attention to bring them up to operable standard. Ray has been busy making a number of the pins required to link up the smaller parts of the motion and has united the return cranks with the eccentric rods. In between times he has helped out with other machining jobs for 928's tender- see below.

After an absence from Maunsell affairs due to working on other projects, we have been pleased to welcome back Frank Glue who had made a start on firebox stay removal work last year. This Spring he has taken charge of the significant task of knocking out the rivets that hold the foundation ring into the firebox. This has entailed gassing off the heads of approximately 150 rivets and then knocking the rivets out with an air powered hammer tool.

The first 100 were fairly straightforward, albeit a fair degree of physical effort was required. For safety reasons, it was necessary to rope off a large area around the firebox as the rivets certainly could "fly" for quite a distance when they finally came out. The last 50 or so were another matter and required some canny ideas and a lot of graft before they were successfully removed. It has to be said that we can only contemplate this scale of task because we have access to Bluebell's workshop facilities, technical advice and support. This just goes to show what we can achieve when working in partnership with the railway.

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I think it is fair to say that we have now made a significant start on the work required on the boiler. We know that quite a bit of the work in the future will require specialist welding repairs and a significant input from Bluebell's permanent staff but we hope we can continue to play a useful role in moving the job forward.

1638's tender remains under cover behind Stowe and helps remind people as to what is required to complete our current tender overhaul.

847

A new inspection pit has been created on number 3 road to enable a quicker disposal of locomotives at the end of the working day particularly on those days when 4 or 5 are in use. This required a new home to be found for 847 pending its being dismantled for overhaul and it is now at the south end of the Pump House siding. Although not in such a visible position as before, at least it is now away from the other (older) pit where it suffered from the effects of ash disposal. Little further progress can be made until its turn comes to be dismantled for full overhaul.

Stowe

Rapid progress has been made by Melvyn Frohnsdorff and the Sunday gang in spite of the very damp Winter (it seemed to rain on virtually every Sunday from January to mid March which does not help progress outdoors). The following tasks have been undertaken:-

The assembly of the dragbox took place inside the workshop in late March/April. As luck would have it, as soon as we headed off indoors we had a six week run of dry Sundays! Anyway, as we go to press, the whole new front end assembly has been lifted back into place at the front of the frames and then welded by Paul Bryan, Bluebell's contract coded welder.

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Some of the tasks listed above called for some skilled work by our Sunday gang. The fabrication of the new parts for the drag box required some careful measuring and cutting work. It took four days and over 160 rivets to assemble the new drag box and frames assembly, access being quite awkward for some of the rivets but the result is a sound, neat job. It went together correctly first time with few if any hitches in the construction.

The next jobs will be to reconstruct the inner frames area behind the front drag box and to attend to the faults of the rear drag box. All being well, we are hopeful of getting the whole chassis ready for re-wheeling by late Summer, one year after starting, which will represent rapid progress for a mainly Sundays only gang. We shall now be working outside again so hopefully visitors will have something interesting to see on a Sunday.

Finally, I must just mention that we have been able to purchase a genuine ex "Schools" Class hydrostatic lubricator to fit to Stowe which currently has a non authentic replacement.

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The casting was cracked but Ray Bellingham tracked down a firm in Oakham, Rutland who could mend it and David Jones kindly arranged delivery and collection. Obviously this was a rare opportunity to ensure we could re-instate a genuine cab fitting back on Stowe

PMV No.2186

As with looking after a house, a wooden bodied vehicle such as our PMV does require regular maintenance. Fortunately Rodney Packham (with some help from our Newsletter Editor) and David Jones have nobly stepped forward to tackle the replacement of several rotten areas of woodwork and to give it a repaint. Rodney is a carpenter by trade and David's paintwork is always to a high standard so we look forward to another quality job.

And finally, it just remains for me to thank all those who have helped either physically or financially to support the Society's work. There is plenty going on with our projects and there is still ample work for anybody who would care to join us, be you skilled or unskilled. A bit of fresh air and Summer sunshine down at Sheffield Park should lift the spirits. You need to be a paid up member of the Bluebell and the MLS for insurance purposes. Please just come along on a Sunday and find our group.

Steve Pilcher

PUBLICITY

Ian Hawkins and Steve Pilcher put up a display stand at the Bluebell's AGM on Saturday May 18th and were able to meet a number of members and discuss progress on the various projects. It was also a useful opportunity to thank Bluebell members for their support in recent years. We hope to put up the stand on the Sunday of the Somerset & Dorset weekend (September l5th) and on the Sunday of the Bluebell's Giants of Steam weekend (October 27th).

Also on the publicity front, an article about Stowe has been written by Steve Pilcher and sent to Stowe School. Your Editor had the much easier task of choosing the accompanying photographs. The article and photographs are due to appear in September in the next issue of The Stoic, the School's magazine.

STOCK BOOK

Do you want to have the full facts and figures regarding our locomotives' shed allocations etc? The stock book is A5 size, with 2 pages and a photograph for each locomotive in either SR or BR service. We still have plenty of copies of this recently published item for sale at the giveaway price of £1.50 including post and packing. Available from the Treasurer - see address list on inside cover.

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Please make cheques payable to the Maunsell Locomotive Society. A free copy will be sent to anyone who makes a donation of £10 or more following distribution of this magazine. The booklet has been produced at no cost to the Society so all sales will clearly help the cause.

VANNA VIDEOS - NEW FOOTAGE OF 847

We are still selling the Vanna Videos' "A to Z of SR locomotives" series. Part 2 includes the preserved Maunsell S15s, Lord Nelson and Sir Lamiel and, in particular, our very own S15 847. The video is approximately 60 minutes long and is well worth watching. We are able to supply copies of the above video for £15.95 including p&p - if you would like a copy, please send a cheque for that amount to the Treasurer.

The proprietor of Vanna Videos, Syd Carroll, who is a Bluebell member, is putting together his next video. This will include material on the preserved Q, U, "Schools" and Bulleid locomotives. The new video is due out later this year so if you want to be one of the first with a copy, please send the Treasurer your details and he will be back in touch as soon as the video is available.

If you have any archive film or clear sharp photographs of any of the above locomotives in SR/BR service that you are prepared to lend Syd, please contact him at 67 Sidney Road, Borstal, Rochester, Kent. He is offering to provide a free copy of this next video to anyone whose material he uses. He is very grateful for all the helpful feedback he has received from members.

SIGN WRITING

On November 4th 2001, whilst painting the word SOUTHERN and the number 1638 on the side of the new tender tank, I was asked by Barry Fletcher, a Life member of the Society who was visiting Sheffield Park that day, to describe the method I used to create the final result. He has for many years been interested in liveries and lettering/lining of Southern locomotives and has written many notes on the subject.

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I was pleased to have a conversation with him whilst I was lettering and numbering the side of the new tender for 1638 (see photograph on page 4 in the last Newsletter) but explained that I was not a professional signwriter only an ex Engineering Draughtsman who has learnt such skills at the Bluebell Railway.

The method I use was passed on to me some years ago by Mick Blackburn, a long serving Bluebell driver, and basically involves tracing an existing word or number with a pencil on to standard drawing office tracing paper (the best being Gateway from Wiggins Teape) and then rubbing chalk over the back where any lines are present. The sheet can then be positioned at the desired location on the tender, or wherever the shape has to be, and the same lines can be redrawn thus transferring the chalk from the back of the tracing paper on to the paintwork. Being very careful not to rub off the chalk, one then paints within the lines to create the lettering. When the paint has dried, the chalk can be rubbed off easily to leave just the painted shape.

Following advice from Tony Funnell who does much of the lettering and lining on the carriages at Horsted Keynes as well many locomotives such as "Stepney" and the Standards, I use Keeps signwriting paint made by J W Bollom Ltd. at Elmers End near Croydon but unfortunately they are discontinuing their range so the future of supplies of this special paint is uncertain. We will have to look for an alternative.

The 16 of 1638 was traced from the tender of our other U Class No.1618, the 8 came from 847's tender and the 3 from 323 on the tank side of the P Class "Bluebell". When there are no existing words or letters conveniently available, one has to revert to drawings or to making up from scratch using old photographs. When I did the lettering on the Wagons-Lit some years ago, I was fortunate at being able to obtain copies of the original 1934 drawings from WL at Ostend, so the Compagnie etc. on that coach are to the correct style and spacing.

Following the letter that I sent to Barry explaining the method I use, he was kind enough to send details of the way they used to do it at the various British Railways Works such as Ashford, Brighton and Eastleigh, which also involves the use of chalk but in a different way. In this method used in the 1940s, the Works Drawing Office first produced a "pounce" which was the words, number or any other item to be painted produced in outline, full size on heavy paper or thin card. Using something like the point of a pair of compasses to create a series of small holes, the required outline would then be pierced or pricked through the card. The resulting jagged cardboard points on the back were then cut off with a razor blade to leave a smooth surface.

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A "chalk bag", prepared by placing chalk powder inside material that was not too closely woven, was then dabbed over the pounce, when in position, to produce a series of dots on the paintwork to be lettered. The pounce could be used again and again by the signwriter who would keep a stock of the various numbers and words to be used on locomotives and tenders.

This procedure was used up until the 1960s but, in later years when transfers had superseded original painting, it was used only if the new letters or numbers had run out. Eventually transfers took over completely as they were much easier. Several instances when the pounce method was used have been recounted by Barry, such as the crest on the tender of Bulleid Pacific No.34090 and the lettering and numbering on the two locomotives restored at Eastleigh for overseas railway museums, "Schools" Class No.926 Repton destined for Bellows Falls in the USA and LBSCR "Terrier" Class Waddon which went to Delson just outside Montreal.

The use of the pounce method was not restricted to steam locomotives. Several instances of its being used on diesels and electric stock are recounted by Barry as well as for the headboard of "The Cunarder" boat train to Southampton.

David Jones

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2002

This year's AGM is due to be held on Sunday August 4th in the Classroom in the car park at Sheffield Park Station starting at 10 am. As usual, there will be a review of current projects and discussion of a wide range of other topics.

1618 - A CELEBRATION OF 25 YEARS BASED AT THE BLUEBELL

Those of you with an eye for facts and dates will know that 25 years ago U class 1618 arrived at the Bluebell Railway and entered traffic in June 1977. Since then it has had two periods of operation and clocked up 46,000 miles, one of the highest mileages for a Bluebell based locomotive.

The successful operation of 1618 demonstrated that the restoration of ex Barry scrap yard locomotives was a feasible option for the Bluebell Railway to follow. The result has been that over the years since 1977 there has been the purchase from scrap condition and return to steam for several other former Barry inmates including 541, 847, 73082, 80151 and 92240.

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Since arriving on the Bluebell, the Maunsell Locomotive Society has grown from being a society owning one locomotive to a group that is now responsible for 5, all kept at the Bluebell Railway. Mighty oaks from little acorns will grow as they say. Who would have thought 25 years ago that, following 1618's arrival, the Society would have grown so much and still be very active in tackling restorations and overhauls of its locomotives. It has been a successful story of working together with the Bluebell to everyone's benefit.

Altogether the Society's locomotives have clocked up more than 100,000 miles of operation, providing pleasure to many visitors. The Society's members have contributed £100,000 plus into restoring the locomotives and we raised well over £100,000 to buy Stowe in 2000 to ensure it stays on the Bluebell Railway. The locomotives fit in well with the line's coaching stock and are the backbone of the ex Southern Railway designs on the line. In addition, Maunsell's designs are simple to operate and maintain; economical, yet powerful enough to fulfil all demands from the operating department.

I hope the accompanying photographs will bring back fond memories of the past 25 years. To celebrate the start of our second 25 years, we can look forward to having our other U Class No.1638 in traffic in the not too distant future.

Steve Pilcher

SWAPMEET

We plan to set up shop again at the Bluebell Railway's Railway and Collector's fair on July 20th. As ever, any donations of items we can sell on would be much appreciated. We find that there is quite a good demand for second hand books - those with a railway theme sell well - but there is a good demand for novels etc. from everyday visitors to the line. If you have anything you feel might be useful to us, please just drop by on a Sunday and track down our working party.

No.850

In late March some very good news for all Southern enthusiasts was released. Those running the project (owners the National Railway Museum and the Eastleigh Railway Preservation Society Ltd. who are carrying out the restoration) to return Lord Nelson to full working order had received confirmation from the Heritage Lottery Fund of a second grant to complete repairs to the locomotive's boiler. The grant of £168,500, when supplemented by further fundraising by the Eastleigh group, will enable all boiler work to be completed so that the locomotive can return to the national network in the not too distant future.

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An initial grant of £69,700 had been received from the Heritage Lottery Fund in April 13 2000. At the time it was expected that this would be sufficient for the boiler work then thought necessary but for the next 18 months a whole series of defects were discovered which put the cost of repairs well above the initial estimate. This was a very depressing time for volunteers and supporters alike but confirmation of the second grant has raised spirits and there is now a renewed resolve to complete the job. The sight of Lord Nelson speeding through the countryside should now not be too far away.

The Eastleigh Railway Preservation Society warmly welcomes new members and invites anyone interested in joining to write to

Mr G Dickaty (ERPS Membership)
PO Box 1117
Southampton
S014 3XH
or e-mail info@erps.co.uk

FORTHCOMING TALK

It's some way off in the future but on Tuesday December 10th later this year David Jones will be giving his talk and slide show "From Scrap to Steam" (re-branded for this occasion only "A scrap with steam") to the KESRA Sussex Area Group at the village hall at Westham near Pevensey, East Sussex. Starting time is 7.30 pm and all are welcome.

"FROM BOOKING BOY TO BULLEIDS"

A fascinating book which charts the footplate career of Jim Evans from 1944, when he joined the Southern Railway as a cleaner at Bournemouth MPD, to his driving the final steam locomotive out of Waterloo in 1967. An excellent read and a real must for those with "Southern steam" in their blood.

The Editor of the book, Andrew Vent, has kindly offered to donate £1 to our Society for each copy purchased by our members. The book is available direct from Andrew at 44 Manor Road, Bexhill, TN4O 1 SN. Cheques should be made out to "Buggleskelly Books" for £18.95 plus £1.50 towards p&p.

Any MLS member purchasing the book will also receive a numbered "Souvenir Sheet" signed by both Jim Evans and Andrew Vent.

USED STAMPS

Just to mention we are back in business for collecting used postage stamps. David Jones very kindly arranged the exchange of a recent consignment for £20. So if you are prepared to save up your old stamps and can drop them off with our Sunday working party at Sheffield Park, it is all useful free money.

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LETTERS

Two letters, both of which were held over from Newsletter No.44 owing to lack of space, have been received from Arthur Ll. Lambert. One is in response to the contents of Newsletter No.43 and the other as a result of the Autumn 2001 News Sheet. In the first letter he writes:

Just two points about the first part of my tender article; the Woolwich Ns were taken straight into SR stock in 1925/26, as stated, and were numbered A826-A875 (from mid 1931 Nos. 1826-1875, in theory). They were never continued from the SE&CR numbers, as shown in the text.

I believe the reason for the double exchanges of Eastleigh bogie tenders was because the "Scotch Arthurs" had three vacuum cylinders placed at the rear of the coal space whereas the mixed traffic S15s did not.

However, the real reason for writing this is the comment about Haileybury waiting to go into the West Yard (at Tonbridge Newsletter No.43 page 7 Ed.). I can assure you it was not, the simple reason being that, from that position, it was unable to make a direct entry to the Yard, but could do so only by drawing forward and reversing into the down fast and then drawing forward again into the Yard. That would tie up the main line layout for nearly ten minutes and would have been a quite pointless exercise. The signalling shown in the lower photograph tells the story

But first, when the renewal of Tonbridge station took place in 1933-1935 (something for which I had a grandstand view except during the school holidays!), one of the principal features was to raise the speed limit round the main line curve from 30 to 40 mph (subsequently raised to 50). In order to do this, it was felt desirable not to have a facing turnout with opposite cant right at the beginning of the curve, so the connection from the up fast to the Redhill line was discarded, though the down Redhill continued to cross both up slow and up fast. All this can be seen in the photograph. For the introduction of Eurostar, it was considered inadvisable to have any pointwork at all on the curve which was consequently quadrupled and the Redhill line diverted into the former up platforms.

The only route from Ashford to Redhill from 1935 was via the up slow platform or the (new) up loop. Indeed the Tonbridge East home brackets both included a splitting doll with a working distant arm, whereas the distants below the up slow and loops were fixed.

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Reverting to the signalling shown, the doll on the gantry, just in view at the extreme edge of the photograph, carried the Redhill starter; next is the ringed arm for entry into the West Yard, then the shunt signal for local movement and, last in that group, the main line starter. To the right, the up fast group is just a shunt signal for local movement (used every weekday by the Brighton Tunbridge Wells - Tonbridge - Maidstone - Chatham (and in the opposite direction), which then reversed into the down platform to change locomotives) and the sole running signal for the main line. The up slow group was exactly copied for the up loop, at the left hand end of the gantry.

I fear I cannot proffer an explanation for what was happening, for there was second advanced starting on the main line, so there was nothing to prevent the train proceeding to the advance starter beyond the curve. If the intention had been to go to the West Yard, then the train would have gone into the (empty) up slow road and, presumably, straight into the Yard.

And in response to the piece in the Autumn News Sheet regarding damage to Stowe's tender he writes:

You ask for knowledge about repairs to the tender of Stowe. I do not have any such knowledge but, equally, I have never heard of any incident involving either 914 or 928 out on the road. It does look as though there might have been a shunting accident when travelling backwards. Unfortunately, over the years, these were much too frequent on shed, with restricted vision and both men not looking out on their respective sides. Such incidents were kept very much under wraps and were never normally heard about.

You state that welding was only introduced during the Bulleid regime during and after WW2. The first part of that (statement) is undoubtedly correct but, whilst I do not know what happened in the locomotive shops, in the carriage shops I am sure there was welding before the end of 1938 for the Reading and Medway electrification stock if not for the Portsmouth No.2 Buffet Cars.

Yours sincerely,
Arthur Ll. Lambert

FINALLY

My thanks, as always, to all contributors to this Newsletter for making my job such an easy one. My thanks also to Mickle Print Ltd. of Canterbury, Kent, our printers.

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