The Railway Magazine – August 2019

On the Downfast at West Ealing,No. D829Magpieheadswest onAugust 24, 1963.

ACURTISCOLLECTION

Right: BR letter (March 2, 1973):Even thoughMagpie’sofficial scrap date is given

as 30/1/74, the letter says the engine had already been broken-upat Swindon.The

nameplateswerenow availablefor sale,although theTVprogramme did not get them.

D829’ssister engine No.D867 wasalso anexhibi tatt he

InstituteofLocomotiveEngineers’event at Marylebone

Goods yard in 1971.ACURTISCOLLECTION

Iunderstand that ‘Magpie’ is still in mothballsat

NewtonAbbot pending the outcome ofprev ious

interestshown.

“Obviously,shouldasale materialise,there

could be plenty of scopefor favourable publicity,

whet her it be thetemporar yreinstatement of

the locomotiveinto servicefor afinallastrun or

the takingof thelocomotive byroad low-loader
into ThamesTelevision’s‘Magpie’ studio,as was
originallysuggested byThamesTelevisionwho
said they wouldconsider footing the cost.”
Taking thelocomotive into the studio for a

film shootdoesn’treally stackup as an interest to

buy the engineandsot he real interest wa sclearly

from theDartValley.

Magpiereturned t oservice onMarch17,

although this was almost scuppered completely

whenitcaught fireonApril 7while assisting

‘Western’No.D1056WesternSultanon the

10.30 Paddington-Penzance.D829was attached

at NewtonAbbot, but thencaught fireand was

put into TavistockJunction yardafter thefire

brigadehadattended totheblaze.Remarkably,

D829 continuedto soldieron.

But the jungledrum swerealso beatingloudly,

and nowheremoresothan in the Magpieoffi ces

on EustonRoadinLondon.

Refuted

On May1,Sue Turner,tippedoff by aviewer

and enthusiast, contactedWDParker at Derby’s

Technical Centre and madeaclaim concerning

the locomotive’s nameplatesthat BRrefutedfrom

day one.

Miss Turner commented: “I haverecently

heardfromaviewerthat hehas seenthe

locomotiverecently without her nameplate.

Iwould be gratefulif youcould let meknow what

has happened to itas we werepromiseditifitwas

not sold toaprivateenthusiast.”

ClearlyMiss Turner wa sblissfully unawarethe

enginecarri ed twonameplates,buther useoft he

word‘promised’ set alarmbells ringing onBR.

Firstly,salesassistantDJFaircloth wrote to

theWR’sCM&EE departmentaskingthem to

investigate the claim.

He said: “ThamesTelevision havewritten to

us concerning the locomotiveas they have been

recentlyadvisedthatiti snow operatingminus

nameplates. Apparently,they havebeen promised

the nameplatesifthe locomotive isnotsold

for pres ervation.

“Wewereunder theimpressionthat

nameplatesfrom theselocomotiveswere being

August2019 •TheRailway Magazine•