After a protracted and gradual restoration since leaving Barry in 1981, progress on GWR '28XX' No. 2807 has gathered pace. Now the owners of the 'Heavy Freight' 2-8-0 are making a concerted 'last push' to return the engine to steam for its 100th anniversary in 2005.
BY CSP PUBLICITY OFFICER STEVE PRICE.
Heavy freight locomotives somehow never quite capture the same admiration as named engines. Perhaps this is because a name is more evocative than a number. So we call our locomotive, 1905-built GWR '28XX' No. 2807, our 'Heavyweight Champion'. Why? Because our 'baby' hauled a massive 2,012-ton coal train from Swindon to Acton when only four months old. And that makes No. 2807 unique.
Swindon built Britain's very first 2-8-0, GWR No. 97, exactly 100 years ago in 1903. The objective was to develop a powerful engine capable of hauling coal from the South Wales collieries right across Great Western territory. This prototype proved so successful that full production started within two years, and No. 2807 rolled out of the 'Factory' in October 1905, complete with tall and proud copper-capped chimney. These locomotives were the first really modern freight engines, and so everything from Stanier's '8Fs' to the 'WDs' and ultimately even BR's superb '9F' 2-10-0s can trace their ancestry back to the 'Twenty-Eights'. They were ahead of their time.
| Class: | '2800' |
| Power classification: | E (GWR), 8F (BR) |
| Length (locomotive & tender): | 63ft 2½in |
| Weight (locomotive only): | 75 tons 10 cwt (full) |
| 70 tons 2 cwt (empty) | |
| Working pressure: | 225lb/sq in |
| Driving wheel diameter: | 4ft 8in |
| Cylinders: | (2 outside) 18½in x 30in |
| Tractive Effort: | 35,380lb |
On February 25 1906, the almost-new No. 2807 was called on to prove that the hauling power of this type of engine was dramatically greater than anything seen before. A coal train was put together at Swindon with 107 wagons, with capacities of 20, 12, ten, nine and eight tons. To this was attached a brakevan, and Swindon's dynamometer car, which recorded progress. The whole train weighed 2,012 tons.
Driver Buckland and fireman Griffiths eased the 2-8-0 and its record-breaking load out of Swindon yard at 12.8pm, and headed east. There was no automatic brake on the wagons, some of which were of dubious fitness, so starting and stopping had to be carefully judged, to say the least! Carefully taking up the slack on the couplings to even out the strain, and coping with the effect of wagons bumping and banging each other, would have required all the skill of the experienced Swindon crew to avoid damage, slipping or, heaven forbid, breaking a coupling. Deliberately stopped several times en route, the train took 3¾ hours to reach Acton yard (73 miles away) at 4.48pm.
That day, our engine set a record for steam-hauled tonnage. In his report on the journey, the inspector who accompanied the engine crew commented: "I found the engine was completely master of the load and, in my opinion, a 25% more load could have been taken."
It was probably the most spectacular day in the entire 38-year career of the Churchward locomotive, which soon 'disappeared' into the day-to-clay business of the vital, yet unglamorous and punishing task of slogging around the GWR system with coal trains. The 2-8-0s were frequently overlooked perhaps, but this was where the money was made.
Wartime warhorses
Never was that task more vital than during the two world wars that No. 2807 lived through - during the Great War finding work on the 'Jellicoe Specials' which fed the voracious appetite of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet.
The soundness of the original design was proved by the fact that the GWR 2-8-0s, with minor variations, continued to be built until 1942 - and by the fact that they stayed to the last knockings on the Western Region.
Then, with British Railways' steam fleet being run down, No. 2807 was finally withdrawn, with 1,472,687 miles 'on the clock', from Severn Tunnel Junction on July 7 1963. It was sold to Woodham's at Barry on October 9 1963 and spent 17 years standing in the salty air before being rescued by Cotswold Steam Preservation Ltd.
In 1981 the 'Champ' became the 130th engine to leave that famous scrapyard. Of more than 200 locomotives whose future had been indirectly secured by Dai Woodham, No. 2807 was the oldest - and it's also the oldest surviving 'Twenty-Eight'.
It's not often remembered, but No. 2807 was the first steam engine to arrive at the embryonic Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway at Toddington, on June 20 1981. The hard work was about to begin: did any of the small group of rescuers realise that the £8,625 they paid to buy No. 2807 would be a drop in the ocean of restoration that lay ahead?
Some of the initial work was carried out by the Birmingham Railway Museum, but the 2-8-0 returned to Toddington when the group decided to take on the rebuild itself, with the assistance of the GlosWarks Locomotive Department. Since 1993 there has been increasing momentum behind the project, with a team of volunteers working on the engine and tender, greatly supported by a small army of people assisting with fund-raising activities behind the scenes. Check the website to see the range of goods sold to raise urgently-needed funds: www.GWR2807.co.uk
The restoration
No. 2807 has been completely stripped down, frames shot-blasted, and old collision damage to the frames repaired. Every component is being carefully overhauled and refitted. A replacement axlebox had to be manufactured (the old one was unserviceable) and the driving wheel tyres re-profiled. The frames were re-wheeled by volunteers at Toddington in June 1996, and the pony truck assembled and fitted. New running boards, splashers and cab plating have been made. The rocking shafts have been overhauled and installed. Oil boxes and new pipework have been fitted up. The vacuum cylinder and brakes have been fitted. The group has even fabricated parts ourselves, such as a cab window frame and the smokebox door dart.
One final achievement at the end of the 2002 season was the fitting of the coupling rods. The team pushed the engine by hand, to rotate the wheels and fit the rods!
Project Manager Mark Taft said: "We do everything that we possibly can using the skills of the restoration team. It doesn't matter if you're not an engineer. If you know which end of a paintbrush to hold, that's fine! We'll find you something to paint."
The biggest challenge now is the boiler. About 1,500 firebox stays have to be replaced. Each old one has to be drilled and carefully chiselled out. The holes are then re-tapped ready for the new stays. "We calculated that we could halve the cost of overhauling the firebox by making stays ourselves." Mark continued, "so we've bought a CNC lathe."
There are also 176 boiler tubes and 14 superheater flues to buy for the boiler, the overhaul of which is expected to cost £60,000. By the time it's finished, the entire rebuild will have swallowed around £250,000.
CSP Chairman Roger Molesworth adds cheerfully: "We launched a tube sponsorship appeal last June and we now have sponsors for over 80 tubes. Only about 100 to go!" Two members of the team sponsored new connecting rod castings last November, the originals having disappeared while No. 2807 was still in Barry. Piston rods and cylinder valve liners are currently being finished in preparation for being installed.
Fund-raising and the future
This momentum has only been possible through the sterling efforts of the fund-raising team. The annual turn-over of CSP is typically £12,000, raised partly through people buying shares in No. 2807 and partly from the sale of goods - ranging from clothing, through 'OO' scale models to a unique design of shoe-scraper made out of surplus rail chairs!
"Money is our main limiting factor," admits Roger. "It is our supporters who regularly subscribe from as little as £5 per month towards shares who enable us to plan ahead and keep moving forward."
After many years hard labour, the rolling chassis is now substantially completed, and work has more recently concentrated on the boiler and the tender. The Churchward 3,500 gallon tender had suffered badly. The water tank was very badly corroded and a new well has had to be built. New panels have been welded in all the way round. The original water scoop has been re-fitted, even though there are no water troughs to make use of it.
The tank top is currently being fitted, and if all goes to plan, the tender will be a 'runner' by the autumn, and the team is hoping to find someone to hire it while work continues on the locomotive.
CSP Publicity Officer Steve Price adds: "The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway is having a momentous year, opening its new extension to Cheltenham Racecourse. This is a tremendous achievement, and it's vital that we in Cotswold Steam Preservation keep up our momentum on the restoration of No. 2807.
"There is no doubt that, once completed, No. 2807 will be kept exceptionally busy on the GWSR both on passenger trains and freight charters. We must use the impetus from the extension to help us complete No. 2807, so 2003 is a critical year."
CSP is working hard to have the engine - in GWR green - back in steam for its 100th birthday in October 2005. This will be no mean feat, but with enthusiasm and drive - and the £100,000 which still needs to be raised - they might just make it. As for another 2,000-ton coal train? Well, we'll have to see!