Difference between revisions of "686 The Lady Armaghdale"

686 in service

Manchester Ship Canal

Built by the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds in 1898, 0-6-0T works number 686 was the second of ten Hunslet ‘Chest’ class locomotives ordered by the Manchester Ship Canal Company (MSCManchester Ship Canal). It was given the name “St John” after Port Saint John in New Brunswick, Canada.^[1]

The locomotive had a number of special features to enable it to work heavy trains round the tight curves of the MSCManchester Ship Canal’s extensive railway network. These included Cartazzi leading axle boxes (see below) and flangeless centre driving wheels. Leaf springs were fitted on the front two axles and coil springs on the rear axle. In a powerful loco with a short wheelbase, this resulted in a lively dancing ride which led to members of the class being referred to as a ‘Jazzer’.^[2]

During the First World War the MSCManchester Ship Canal stopped using locomotive names and introduced numbers, 686 becoming No 14.^[3] One name plate was retained and fixed on the rear inside of the cab, where it can still be seen today.

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  ‘St John’ nameplate 686’s cab

During its working life with the MSCManchester Ship Canal, 686 may have carried a number of different liveries, probably starting life in dark green with double white lining and possibly later acquiring a slate blue livery. The final livery was known to have been black (see gallery below).^[4]

686 was finally withdrawn from service by the MSCManchester Ship Canal in 1962, at a time when the railway was being scaled down due to the transfer of traffic from rail to road.

ICI Dyestuffs

In 1963 a locomotive at ICI Dyestuffs at Blackley Manchester was damaged in a runaway accident. The locomotive was a Hawthorn Leslie saddle tank No 3455/1920 named “The Lady Armaghdale” after the wife of a former Chairman of the company.^[5] Rather than repair the Hawthorn Leslie, the company opted to purchase 686 as a readily available working replacement. 686 was duly repainted in ICI crimson livery and acquired the name “The Lady Armaghdale”, although the locomotive was never popular at ICI, being regarded at best as a pseudo ‘Lady Armaghdale II’. By 1968, 686 had been withdrawn from service for a second time.^[6]

686 in preservation

Following their acquisition of MW 2047 Warwickshire in 1967, 686 was the second locomotive to be purchased by the Warwickshire Industrial Loco Preservation Group, arriving on the Severn Valley Railway on 14 July 1969.^[7]

It is allocated TOPS number 98186 and is one of three standard gauge locomotives have run on the mainline that were not previously in BRBritish Rail or British Railways stock; for numbering it was assigned power class 1FThe British Railways system of classifying steam locomotives by power using a number from 0, least powerful, to 9, most powerful, followed by either F for freight, P for Passenger or MT for Mixed Traffic. on the basis of its tractive effort^[8].

First boiler ticket

686 was first steamed a week before the 1969 August Gala,^[9] although SVRSevern Valley Railway News does not record any mileage until 1971. Not sufficiently powerful to haul service trains, 686 acted as 'station pilot' and shunter, hauled a number of works trains and gave occasional footplate rides at Bridgnorth. The locomotive also appeared in several film and TV productions, including a BBC Horizon documentary on railway accidents in 1972 and as a Russian locomotive in The Incredible Robert Baldick in the same year.

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  686 cosmetically modified for filming in 1972 (David Cooke)

Mileage recorded in SVRSevern Valley Railway News was as follows:

Second boiler ticket

A heavy overhaul was carried out between 1972 and 1981, during which several modifications were made to 686. These included fitting vacuum brakes to allow use on passenger trains, and the installation of an improved lubrication system and a new ventilator in the cab roof.^[10]

After re-entering service in 1981, 686 resumed the role of occasional station pilot and works train locomotive. Visits were made to Tyseley in 1983 and 1986 and to the newly opened Crewe Heritage Centre in 1988, with 686 hauling passenger services on the demonstration lines at both locations. After nine years, the locomotive was finally withdrawn from service on Good Friday 1989 with leaking boiler tubes.^[11]

Mileage recorded in SVRSevern Valley Railway News was as follows:

Third boiler ticket

In June 1992, fellow Manchester Ship Canal locomotive Hudswell Clarke 680/1903 No 32 'Gothenburg' visited the SVR for a ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ event. Following this successful visit, the WILPG agreed that 686 should be overhauled, converted and registered as ‘Thomas’ for use in future such events. The overhaul required further modifications including new tanks, steam heating, bunker rails to improve coal capacity and a new chimney and smokebox. Life as ‘Thomas’ began in March 1994 at Didcot Railway Centre, where the locomotive was specially registered to allow a movement over BRBritish Rail or British Railways metals from the delivery point at the nearby power station.^[12]

Visits to numerous other railways followed. 1998 marked the centenary of HE 686. The locomotive began the year still in use as a roving ‘Thomas’ and was photographed by David Cooke at the East Lancashire Railway in May of that year (see gallery). By October, 686 had been repainted in the more appropriate livery of Manchester Ship Canal No 14 and, as part of the celebrations, re-visited the East Lancashire Railway (see gallery) in the county where she first worked and the Middleton Railway in Leeds, the city where she was built.

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  686 appearing as 'Thomas' on the ELREngineer's Line Reference, East Lancashire Railway, May 1998 (David Cooke)

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  686 as MSCManchester Ship Canal No 14, Buckley Wells October 1998 (David Cooke)

Once again boiler issues brought a premature end to service for 686 at the end of 1999. The mileage recorded in SVRSevern Valley Railway News was as follows:

Fourth boiler ticket

A quick overhaul was carried out allowing a return to steam by 2001. 686 resumed duties as ‘Thomas’ in 2002, again visiting many railways in the UK and also making overseas visits to Holland (Z.L.S.M.) and Germany (Krefeld) in 2005. After being withdrawn from service in September 2009, once again with boiler issues, 686 was cosmetically restored at Bridgnorth into ICI red livery as 'The Lady Armaghdale'. The locomotive then entered The Engine House on 18 October to be displayed while awaiting overhaul.^[13] She briefly left The Engine House on a few occasions, in March 2012 to visit the NEC (Best of Britain Exhibition) and again briefly in June 2018 and March 2019 during shunts of displayed locomotives. In July 2019 she was extricated from The Engine House and transported from Bridgnorth for display at the Chateau Impney Hill Climb Motorsport event. The locomotive again left the Engine House in June 2021 in order to create space for a 'Staycation' event, 'temporarily' moving to Kidderminster Carriage Shed.^[14] In the event it continued its storage there, occasionally appearing on display, such as at Kidderminster during the 2023 Christmas services.

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  686 having arrived at Holland for a 'Thomas' event in October 2002 - the first SVRSevern Valley Railway locomotive to go abroad (David Cooke)

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  686 at Bridgnorth in July 2019 awaiting delivery for display at the Chateau Impney Hill Climb Motorsport event

The mileage recorded in SVRSevern Valley Railway News to 2004 was as follows (details for 2005-2009 were not published):

Cartazzi axleboxes

F. I. Cartazzi was a senior engineer of the Great Northern Railway. His modified axlebox design was intended for trailing carrying wheels on larger locomotives and was used extensively on LNERLondon & North Eastern Railway ‘PacificLocomotive with a 4-6-2 wheel configuration’ steam locomotives.^[15] On 686 his system is used on the leading axle. The top of the axlebox and underside of the axlebox lid have a series of inclined faces. On sharp curves the axlebox is forced sideways, bringing different faces into contact with the lid. On leaving the curve, the weight of the locomotive transmitted through the bearing spring and axlebox lid provides a self-centering force. The leading connecting rods on 686 include an additional horizontal pivot in front of the centre driving wheel to cater for the lateral movement of the front wheel, a feature not necessary on similar locomotives with normal axleboxes such as Jinty 47383.

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  686 coupling rods with horizontal pivot in leading rod (right)

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  47383 coupling rods for comparison

See also

Steam Locomotives
SVR-based locomotives visiting other events
TOPS codes
Locomotives running under different identities

References

1. ↑ Shaw (1998) p. 31.
2. ↑ Shaw (1998) p. 27.
3. ↑ Shaw (1998) p. 29.
4. ↑ Shaw (1998) p. 30.
5. ↑ Shaw (1998) p. 35.
6. ↑ Shaw (1998) p. 36.
7. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway Stock Book Ninth Edition
8. ↑ British Rail Class 98 on Wikipedia (Retrieved 12 September 2023)
9. ↑ Shaw (1998) p. 39.
10. ↑ Shaw (1998) p. 40.
11. ↑ Shaw (1998) p. 41.
12. ↑ Shaw (1998) p. 43.
13. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 171
14. ↑ WILT
15. ↑ Wikipedia

Information from a display board in the Engine House and from past editions of SVRSevern Valley Railway News.

Link

Loco page on Warwickshire Industrial Locomotive Preservation Trust website