County Class

The GWR Hawksworth County Class 4-6-0s were introduced in 1945 but had all been withdrawn from service by the end of 1964. They were frequent visitors to Chester when we were spotting there in the early 1960s, and I eventually saw nineteen out of the thirty locos in the class. None were preserved, though a replica of No. 1014 County of Glamorgan is under construction. John Dyer took these photos of No. 1013 County of Dorset and No. 1025 County of Radnor at Chester and Ruabon.

The Earl

On 19/7/61, we visited Oswestry works with the school railway society. It was a Wednesday and surely, therefore, too early for us to have broken up for the summer holidays. I’m wondering if this was interpreted as an end of term treat to reward us for all our hard work [or not, as in my case].

John Dyer took his picture of Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway 0-6-0T No. 822 The Earl prior to her receiving attention in the works. By the time we reached the W&LLR, in June 1970, The Earl had re-joined No. 823 The Countess and they had both assumed their original [rather than their BR] numbers, as W&LLR Nos. 1 and 2, respectively.

LSWR No. 563

Adams T3 Class 4-4-0 No. 563 was built for the London and South Western Railway at Nine Elms in 1893. She was withdrawn from service in 1945, eventually becoming an exhibit at the Clapham Transport Museum, before moving to the NRM at York and from there to Shildon.

In 2017, she was donated to the Swanage Railway where it is intended to restore her to working order. Updates on progress can be found on the website www.563locomotivegroup.co.uk

John Dyer photographed No. 563 at Eastleigh works on 26/4/60.

“Each a glimpse and gone for ever!”

This is the last line from one of these five stand-out railway poems…..

Edward Thomas, Adlestrop

Robert Louis Stevenson, From a Railway Carriage

Thomas Hardy, Faintheart in a Railway Train

WH Auden, The Whitsun Weddings

WH Auden, The Night Mail

Butler-Henderson

John Dyer took his picture of Butler-Henderson in Gorton works, in 1962. I think that this must have been on a Wallasey Grammar School Railway Society visit during the summer holidays, though I don’t have any surviving notes of my own as evidence. I do remember seeing Butler-Henderson at Gorton, though, and I recorded her presence in my brand-new combined volume in the same year. The more recent other photos show her at Loughborough, in May 1992.  

Eric Butler-Henderson was a director of the Great Central Railway and, as such, had one of the company’s express locomotives named after him. His father, Lord Faringdon, was the board’s chairman. The Improved Director Class were elegant 4-4-0s and Butler-Henderson became GCR No. 506 and later BR No. 62660. She was withdrawn from service in 1960 and preserved as part of the National Collection, one of only two ex-GCR types saved from scrapping along with the O4 freight locomotive, No.63601. Both were Robinson designs.

 

The John Dyer Archive

John Dyer’s photographs provide a fascinating glimpse of the steam railway. Most were taken during the late 1950s and early 1960s. John organised his archive of over a thousand images by following the numerical system adopted by British Railways after 1948 and adopted by the Ian Allan trainspotting books published throughout the post-war period. I am grateful to John for giving me access to his file of pictures and allowing me to share them with others. These photos of the Vale of Rheidol Railway were taken at Devil’s Bridge in June 1961.

Nostalgia

I read an article recently suggesting that far from posing a psychological problem, nostalgia actually has positive health benefits as “a powerful tool in the battle against anxiety and depression” [Tim Adams, The Guardian, 9/11/14]. That’s good enough for me.

Here’s my Dad leaning out of the cab of Class A2 No. 60537 Batchelors Button on Carlisle Canal sheds in 1962. Dad had asked permission for us to have a look round, and had been encouraged by one of the staff to pose in the cab while I took the shot. On the next lane is A3 No. 60043 Brown Jack. The Pacifics were used on the Waverley route to Edinburgh and were then moved to Kingmoor for the relatively short period of time between the closure of Canal and the end of the direct route to Edinburgh.