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hero! Return of a
By Robin Jones
WESTERN Region 4-6-0 No. 7029 Clun Castle – one of the heritage sector’s biggest icons outside of Flying Scotsman and Mallard – was afforded a welcome for a hero as it made its first public movements at an exclusive VIP launch. Shortly after 11am on Saturday, October 28, the 1950-built Swindon product in gleaming BR locomotive green moved out of its shed and along the demonstration line at Tyseley Locomotive Works to rapturous applause by invited guests. Moved into position on the works’ turntable, the locomotive was officially recommissioned when the young family of Tyseley’s works manager Alastair Meanley, (son of Tyseley Chief Engineer Bob Meanley), unveiled the Castle’s nameplate. Throughout the day, Clun Castle steamed up and down the Tyseley demonstration line, double-heading with classmate No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. No. 7029 will take the latter’s place as the flagship of Vintage Trains’ main line fleet alongside No. 5043. The history of Clun Castle has long been part of heritage railway folklore. First allocated to Newton Abbot, it had a double chimney and a four-row superheater fitted in October 1959. Its biggest claim to fame was on May 9, 1964 on the Plymouth to Bristol leg of the ‘Ian Allan Plymouth to Paddington special’ marking the unofficial 100mph
record set 60 years earlier by GWR 4-4-0 City of Truro on Wellington Bank. This time Clun Castle was timed at 96 mph on the descent of Wellington Bank. Last shedded at Gloucester in May 1965, it hauled the last official steam train out of Paddington (to Banbury) on June 11, 1965. When it was officially withdrawn in December 1965, it was the last operational Castle. In early 1966, No. 7029 was bought by Pat Whitehouse, one of the founders of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society (and therefore the heritage railway movement) bringing about the formation of the charity 7029 Clun Castle Limited in the process.
Storage at Tyseley
During early 1967, No. 7029 took part in the operation of special trains to mark the closure of Birmingham Snow Hill and the GWR through route from there to Birkenhead. Pat negotiated storage for Clun Castle at Tyseley shed, and thanks to him, the 1908-built steam depot developed a preservation identity of its own over and above temporary storage for the Dart Valley Railway, the founding of which he was also heavily involved in. In October 1968, 7029 Clun Castle Ltd bought LMS Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 5593 Kolhapur and its supporters established the Standard Gauge Steam Trust as an educational charity. The trust acquired a long-term lease on much of the Tyseley site, and established
Clun Castle stands proudly on the Tyseley turntable for its relaunch into traffic on October 28. ROBIN JONES Inset: The Reverend Maggy Whitehouse, daughter of Clun Castle saviour Pat Whitehouse, blesses the locomotive. ROBIN JONES
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The obligatory bottle of champagne is broken over the bufferbeam by Stuart Whitehouse, son of chairman Michael Whitehouse. MARTIN CREESE
Clun Castle project manager Alastair Meanley and his children Emily and Tilly unveil the nameplate to declare No. 7029 back in traffic. ROBIN JONES
the Tyseley collection. The site became the Birmingham Railway Museum and is now known as Tyseley Locomotive Works. In October 1968, two months after the end of BR steam haulage, Tyseley held its first, and very successful, open day. In 1972, it joined in the ‘Return to Steam’ tours after BR relaxed its post-1968 steam ban. Clun Castle was seen throughout England in the Seventies and Eighties hauling steam railtours and it took a leading role in the 1985 GWR 150 celebrations, running daily shuttles between Gloucester and Swindon. The locomotive was last seen on the main line in 1988 and afterwards it visited heritage lines. Pat Whitehouse died in 1993, and his daughter Maggy Whitehouse, an Independent Catholic cleric who blessed the recommissioned locomotive, told the assembled crowd on October 28 that his ashes were placed in the firebox of Clun Castle during a special working of the locomotive on the Great Central Railway in 1994. The locomotive last steamed at Tyseley Locomotive Works in 2001, and
its overhaul began in 2010. Pat’s son Michael, now chairman of Vintage Trains, told the assembled crowd: “Tyseley and all we do would never have happened if Clun Castle had not come here.” He thanked Birmingham railwaymen Bernard Rainbow, Phil Gloster and Colin Jacks, Tyseley’s first volunteers, who all attended the relaunch.
Into the breach
When the fireman of the return train from Birkenhead to Snow Hill in March 1967 fell ill, Bernard was a passenger on the trip and stepped into the breach, Michael told the crowd. Bernard subsequently led the volunteer movement at Tyseley, which looked after No. 7029 for 25 years on the main line. He also praised Alastair Meanley and his team for the standard of the restoration. He said: “We have done impossible things: returned steam to the main line, invented the ‘Shakespeare Express’ which runs in the working timetable when BR were simply not interested, we have rebuilt Earl of Mount Edgcumbe when the enthusiasts thought it an
The Tyseley Locomotive Works team that brought Clun Castle back to life. ROBIN JONES Find us on www.facebook.com/heritagerailway