S15 4-6-0 No. 828 ‘Harry H Frith’ S15 No. 828 was built at Eastleigh and allocated to Salisbury for its entire working life, being withdrawn in 1964. It was bought from Barry scrapyard by the Eastleigh Railway Preservation Society and moved to Eastleigh works on March 6, 1981, where restoration to main line condition was supervised by the late Harry H Frith, – former erecting shop foreman – by a team of volunteers. Returned to steam in September 1992, the restoration was complete in 1993 and running-in took place on the East Somerset Railway. Main line railtours took the engine to such diverse routes as the Settle & Carlisle and the North Wales Coast line, and in 1996 the locomotive was named Harry H Frith. A period of running on the Swanage Railway followed, until expiry of the boiler certificate in 2002. In 2004, the locomotive was moved to the Mid-Hants Railway for a further overhaul, which is expected to be relatively straightforward.
S15 4-6-0 No. 828 restarts its train having stalled on Honiton bank with Pathfinder Tours’ ‘Exe-Parrett’ tour from Bristol to Exeter on October 8, 1994.
No. 30830 rests at Barry scrapyard on August 15, 1974. JOHN TITLOW
S15 4-6-0 No. 828 crosses Ais Gill viaduct on the Settle & Carlisle line with Pathfinder Tours’‘Cumbrian Mountain Express’ on May 7, 1994. JOHN WHITELEY
S15 4-6-0 No. 830 No. 830 was bought by Maunsell Locomotive Society member David Jones as a source of spares for the society’s No. 847 in September 1987. All that remains though are frames, cylinders, wheelsets and a boiler, which is in poor condition. No. 830 was moved to Sheffield Park on the Bluebell Railway on September 28, 1987, and there was once even a suggestion of converting it to a King Arthur 4-6-0, but nothing came of it. This plan has been dropped, but No. 830 was purchased by the society in 1996, but it was then decided that restoration was way beyond
the available resources and it was sold, the proceeds being allocated to the purchase of Schools class 4-4-0 No. 928 Stowe. No. 830 was purchased by the Essex Locomotive Group and what remains is on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. A condition of sale is that the locomotive will be restored as No. 830, but in the meantime the Group’s S15 No. 825 has donated its frames to its No. 841 after the latter’s several years’ service, so No. 825 is now the operational one. It is envisaged that the rest of No. 841 can act as an eventual source of spares for No. 830, but restoration has not yet begun. Southern Steam revival
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