OFFTHE SHELF
92 Heritagerailway.co.uk indusonwww.facebook.com/heritagerailway
By DavidMaidment(hardback,Pen &Sword, 200pp,£30,
ISBN 1526752018).HOTonthe heelsofthe launch of new
Churchward Saint 4-6-0No. 2999Lady
of Legendat DidcotRailwayCentre
earlier thisyear,comes thatofa nother
locomotivetof ill amajor gap in the
GW heritagefleet ,int he form of
No.6880Betton Grangeat the
LlangollenRailway,which according
to latest reports is dueto move under
its ownpower forthe firsttime in the
coming months.
TheGrange wasone of those
popular GWR4-6-0s ‘thatgot away’
at the end of steam, missingthe
preservation boatbyafew years.Now
thatthisglaring gap is soonto be filled,
there is aneedfor anew definitive
introductiontot he classforamodern
audience, andhereiti s.
While the Granges did not appear
until 1936 when Churchward’s
successor Charles BCollett persuaded
the GWR boardtointroduceanew
mixed traffic locomotive, theoriginof
the idea can be traced backto 1901
whenChurchward postulatedthe idea
of asmallerSaintwith 5f t8in driving
wheels,which evolved into the 43XX
2-6-0s.
Thevolume leavesnostone
unturned in outlining thestory
of the class, from abrief Collett
biographytoadetailed analysis of
the class predecessors,their designand constructionand earlyyears in
traffic,their role during theSecond
WorldWar an dafterwardsand their
performances in theFifties andSixties.
Thebookisl iberally illustratedwith
archi ve colour and black-and-white
images of manyclassmembersin
servicethroughtheWester nRegion.
Theautho ralsogives us the benefit of
his ownexperiences with the class.
No.6853Morehampton Grangeso
narrowly slippedthe preservation
net.Based atTyseleyforits entire
career,the pioneerswhofounded
whatbecame BirminghamRailway
Museumand nowVintageTrains and
TyseleyLocomotiveWorks had it set
asideforpreservation. Sadly,back
in the Sixties,they had only enough
moneytos aveone locomotive, and
choseNo. 7029ClunCastle.
No.6853, whichinAugust 1964
had been the last Grangeto have
beengivenasignificantoverhaul at
SwindonWorks ,was notfortunate
enoughto end up at the benevolent
WoodhamBrothers scrapyard at
Barry,wheresteam locomotiveswere
set asidefor arainyday while the
morelucrativebusiness of cutting up
withdrawnwagonstook priority.
Itfell years la tertoQuentin
McGuinness andhis team at
Llangollento chooseaGrangeasanew-build project, following on from
the restor ationoflarge prairie
No.5199. Just asCollett ’s Granges had
used some of the parts of the 43XXs
that theyhad supersededduring
his reign, so the new Grangewould
usesecond-handcomponents from
other withdrawnSwindon engines,
in pa rticularModifiedHallNo. 7927
Willington Hall,whichhas donatedits
boilertoBetton Grange.Appropriately,
achapterisd edica tedtooutlining the
projectindetail:ironically,much ofthe
work wascarried outatTyseley, from
whereinBRdaysNo. 6853could not
be sa ved.
Forcompleteness,thereisnot
only alist of allclass members but
an explanationoft he granges (the
historic buildings) thateachwere
named after. We aretold thatBetton
Grangeis named afterabuilding
in the ShropshireVillage of Betton
Stran ge.
We areall lookingforwardwith
greatanticipationto No.6880 heading
its first train into the newCorwen
Centra lstation, andthankfully will
have this inspirationalvolumeat our
side whenthathappens.
TIMELYANDRECOMMENDED
CLASSBIOGRAPHYImpermanentWays:The
closedrailway line sof
Britain:Volume14:Devon
andCornwallRevisited
By Jeffrey Grayer(softback,
Crecy, 128pp,£12.95,ISBN
9781909328907).
REGULARvisitorsto theWest Country
who enjoyporingover OrdnanceSurvey
mapsto followthe routes of long-lost
lines maywonde rwhatthey lookedlike,
at leastintheir sunsetyears.
Herewehave aplethoraoft hose
legendarylocalrural routes –Culm
Valley and ExValley branches,
Moretonhampstead,Kingsbridge,
Sidmouth Junction,Plymouthto
Launcestonvia theGWR, Helston,
Ilfracombeand the NorthCornwall
Railway to Bude.
While manyoft he archivepictures
depict the last days of steam,most
portr ay the abandonedstationsof
the Sixties and the post-Beeching era,
several of whichwould surely have
become the target of preservationists
had they lingered onafew more years.
Saddest of allare the imagesforthe
classic trainshedat As hburtonstation,
from which the DartValley Railway was
forced to retrea twhen thenew A38
trunkroad wasbuilt halfacenturyago.
Much has been discussed inrecent years
abou tthe possibilityofr eturning to
Ashburtononanew alignment: such a
schemewould richly deserve to succeed
as it would bestow the proven multiple
benefitsofaheritagerailwayonthis
Dartmoor gateway town.
Thereisa lso asection on the iconic
Lynton &BarnstapleRailway before and
afterpart-revival.
Many of the superb historic pictures
will bring memories flooding backfor
those who usedthesebranchesfor
summer holidays before the car became
king.
SPLENDIDENCAPSULATIONOFA
LOSTAGE
Railway Cranes Volume3:
Hand,steamanddiesel
rail-mountedtravelling
cranesofBritain
By PeterTatlow(hardback,Crecy,
222pp,£35,ISBN9780860936848).
EVERYONE knows thatBritish Rail main
line steam ended in 1968, or do they?
“Ah, but BR kept steamrunningonthe
Vale of RheidolRailway,” someone is
GreatWestern Grange Class
Locomotives: TheirDesign
andDevelopment
guaranteed to
pipe up.
However,
stea mtraction
wasnot
eradicated from
the national
network half
acentu ryago,
foritl ingered
on in theform
of tr avellingrail-mountedsteam cranes.
Some of thesewerescrapped only in
the early Eighties,and afew of the lucky
ones made itto heritagelines.
Following thetwoearlier and highly-
acclaimedvolumes on cranesbyt he
author,aprofe ssionalengineer,this
one looksat the smallerexamplesin
Departmental use on trackwork and
occasionally other dutiesat stations.
Superbly illustrated withcolour
and monochromatic pictures and the
author’s own4mm drawings (ideal
formodellers),this exhaustively-
researched volumecovering cranes
from the BigFour to the modern
day, tacklesasubjectthathas been
overlookedint he past, and therefore
addsanew dimensionto theappreciation ofrailway heritage.
Packed with data, this willcome to be
regarded asadefinitivevolume.
COMPLETINGTHERAILWAY
PICTUREHalesworth–ASuffolk
TransportHub
By RobShorland-Ball(softback,
Halesworthto SoutholdNarrow
GaugeRailway Society,Cornfield
Mews,6AS tradbrokeroad,
Southwold,IP186LQ, http://www.
halesworthtosouthwoldrailway.co.uk
32pp,£9.95plus£1.50p&p.
HEREisthe first publication from
arecentl y-formed group whichis
campaigningforthe reinstatementof
the legendary3ft gaugeSouthwold
Railway from thewester nend where it
met the GER, as opposedto the resort
end which has long been handledby
the Southwold RailwayTrust.
Theultimate aim of thisgroup,which
has been inexistencefor 15 months,
is to one dayhold a‘golden spike’
ceremonywherethe twohalves of the
revived line meet.
This attractiveA4-sizedvolumehighlights the
historyofthe
railway from
the starting
poin t,
through the
useofarchive
photographs,
track layouts
andlarge-
scaleplans.
Many of th epictures showthe railway
in its year of closureand af terwards,
when the demolition men came in, and
arecomparedtomodern-daypictu res
of the same locations.
One of the early actsofr evival was
the re-excavation of thefootings of
the Bird’sFolly quarry engineshed,
whereatoken length of track has been
relaid.
Railway preservation is the art of
the possible,asi thas shown itself
to be time and time again, and this
locally-producedvolume pointsthe
waytoafres htwo-pronged assault
on theobstaclesto the revival of this
line whichback in 1930 came closeto
becomingBritain’sfirst heritagerailway.
GREENSHOOTS OFREVIVALEDITOR’S CHOICE