The Railway Magazine – August 2019

SueTurner,Magpie producer,and her letter claiming the programme had been

‘promised’anameplate from thelocomotive.

No.D829, yettogain yellowwarning panels,headsaDownexpress at Scrubs Lane onApril 1, 1961–just amonth

beforeits starring role withroya lty.ACURTISCOLLECTION

and which is marked ‘dieseltrains’ .The filmis

purported to showBastable visitingBR’s Laira

depot,tofocus onMagpie.The film depicted

Tony talkingtothe driveratthe depotandshots

weretaken in thecab going over the Brunel

bridgeinto Cornwallover the RiverTamar.The

locomotivealsoappearedasanexhibitat Didcot

Open Day on September18, 1971, givingit

anotherslice of fame.

However,nothing furthermaterialised until

it wa sdiscovered,viaarailway enthusiast and

avid viewer,thatMagpiehad beenwithdrawn on

January1,1972. Onceitw as known at Thames

TV,and particularly within the newsroom of the

Magpieshow, the mediamachineimmediately

galvaniseditself.

The storyfromhereonexplains the supposed

link withapreservationbidfor theengine,but

the realitywillsurprise manyreaders,andwill also

need are-write for thisparticular period inthe

historyofthe locomotive.

Chronic shortage

It beginsonFebruary25, 1972,less than a

month priorto thelocomotive beingreturne dto

trafficminus itsMagpienameplates.Following

withdrawal onJanuary 1, it hadbeen dumped at

NewtonAbbot, where she had beenre-allocated

in October ,but thechroni cshortage ofmotive

poweronthe Western Region, causedby the

lack of adequate numbers ofreplacementdiesel-

electric and Sulzerlocomotives, had forced bosses

to re-evaluatethe situation andreturnsome

‘Warships’ intoservice. D829was among these.

On March16, one day beforeshe was

returned to service, the locomotive was hauled

from NewtonAbbot toLaira withsister engines

Nos. D814Dragonand D825Intrepid.After

undergoing minorrepairsand finalchecks,

No. D829wasback in service on the 17th,

although theoffic ial datewas givenas May1,

1972 for someoddreason.

While theprocessof returningthe locomotive

to traffi chad been goingon, interestinpreserving

No. D829surfaced in the Magpieoffices.But it

didn’tcomefromthe pr ogrammeor itsmakers

ThamesTV,but fr om theDartValley Railway

Association (DVRA).

It is at this point the wires, as you will

ascertain,clearly became crossed and the myth

of Thamesor theprogramme itself buyingthe

locomotivefor preservationbegan to formulate.

On February25, 1972, SueTurner,the

producerandco-founderofthe show, received a

letterfromMJDinneenof theDVRA, as itwas

then.They had beeninvolved in preserving, and

then latterly, runningthesteam-hauled railway

from Buckfastleigh andTotnes inDevon.

At thetime, the company theirassociation

supported hadbeen negotiating with British Rail

with aview tobuyingthe line from Paigntonto

Kingswear, which,at thetime, was scheduled

for closure.

The venture was destined to beaclear winner,

and would bringsteam railwaysright into the

tourist area ofTorbay, and provide pleasurefor

thousandsofp arents and children foryears.

But steam was not the onlytypeofp ower

on their minds as MrDinneen

revealedin hisletter to the

Magpieproducer. They had set

theirsights onadiesel-hydraulic

calledMagpie,andwanted the

TV showto help raise funds.

‘Redundant’

He wrot e: “Wehavethe

opportunityof obtaining the

diesel-hydraulic locomotive

number829,which is being

maderedundant byBR very

shortly.Thisengine wouldbe of

enormoushelpint he running

of th elinebecausealthough it

hasn’tthe glamourofasteam

locomotiveit will alwaysbe

availablefor use, unlikeasteam

enginewhich takessome hours

to prep arefor duty.

“The mainreason for

writing toyour programmeis

that the nameofthisparticular

locomotiveis ‘MAGPIE’,

and wethoughtthat perhaps

some of the children viewing

your verypopular programme

mightliketohelpraise funds

to preserve it throughyou.

“Weare certain thatthe

acquisitionof this engine

with itsname wouldbe

agreat advertisementfor

both yourprogrammeandthe railwaywe

voluntarilysupport.”

Mr Dinneenhadbeen veryastute.Thekids

would help raisethecash tobuyMagpiethrough

theprogrammewhich wouldalso benefit from

the subsequentpublicity.Itseemedaplanwell

worthpursuing, and one which,initially ,Miss

Turner appearedtobuy into.

Four days later,she constructedaletterto

DACRubber atBR (WR)offices at Western

Tower inReadingafter he had spokento the

programme’sTVreporter MickRobertson.

‘Goodhome’

She wrote: “Ibelieve youhave spokento a

memberofthe Magpie team–Mick Robertson

–onthe subject ofthefutureofdiesel-hydraulic

LocomotiveNumber829 MAGPIE.Ihave today

receivedtheattached letterfrom Mr Dinneen of

theDartValleyRailwayAssociation. As youknow,

we ar emostinterestedin thefate of 8 29 and

would like to feelthatiti sgoing to agood home.

“I havetold MrDinneenthat although the

programmecannothelphim in direct fundraising

we wouldbe able to doafilmstory about his

railwayline and locomotiveMAGPIEifshe were

to be bought byhisorganisation.

“I imaginethereisasubstantialamount

of money involvedbut Iamsurethatif

MAGPIEfound agoodand permanenthome,

therewould be manypublicityrewards forBritish

Rail (Western Region) in coverage of her new life.

“I would be most interested to hear from you

as to whatthe current plansfor herdisposalare

and what sor tofpriceisexpectedtobeasked

for her.”

It wasnow the turnofBR’s ownpublic

relations machine togetinvolved. SueTurner’s

letter ,and thatof Mr Dinneen,found themselves

on thedesk ofthePRdepartment. Thereply,of

March10,was copied to the salescontroller at

the RailwayTechnical Centre on LondonRoad,

Derby, the CM&EEatPaddington, and the

storescontroller at Euston.

Interestingly,the PR officer wrote:

“Negotiationsfor thepossible sale of this

locomotiveareatpresent beingseparately

conductedwithani nterested purchaserthrough

our Derby SalesController.Ihave forwarded your

lettertogether with thatfromMrDinneen of the

DVRA directto Derby witharequestthatthey

give you an earlyreply as to thecurrent situation.”

Three dayslate r, on March13, with D

just daysawayfromre-instatement intotraffic,

DACRubber wrote tothesales controller at

Derby, enclosingthe relevant correspondence

fromSue Turner and MrDinneen.

He confirmed: “From conversationwith

Mr Yule of ourPaddingtonCM&EE,

16 •TheRailway Magazine•August

THEMAGPIESTORY