Difference between revisions of "BR Riddles 4MT 75069"

75069 in service

75069 was built in 1955 at BRBritish Rail or British Railways's Swindon works and entered traffic at Dover. It was fitted with a double chimney at Eastleigh in 1960, returning to traffic at Stewart's Lane.^[1] After just 11 years in service around London and the South Coast, the locomotive was withdrawn from service at Eastleigh in September 1966.^[2]

The cab side has a yellow triangle^{[note 2]} below the number. This indicated that the locomotive was fitted with special equipment for water softening. The 'Alfloc' process jointly developed by BRBritish Rail or British Railways and ICI used briquettes placed in a sieve in the tender water filling opening, where they would dissolve in the water and fed into the boiler by the injectors. This reduced the build up of scale and allowed locomotives to be scheduled for fortnightly rather than weekly washouts, greatly improving locomotive availability.^[3]

• 

  The yellow triangle on 75069's cab

75069 in preservation

A notice appeared in SVRSevern Valley Railway News for winter 1971-72 advising that a fund to acquire 75069 from Barry Scrapyard was to be set up by "the same team that organised the funds for 43106 and later 80079". A meeting to discuss the proposal took place in Birmingham on 18 May 1972, by which time secretary Mick York could confirm that a deposit of £500 had been secured against Dai Woodham's asking price of £3,500 and the locomotive had been successfully moved from "the death rows" to a separate siding in the lower yard at BarryWoodham Brothers Scrapyard, Barry, South Wales. The source of many locomotives now in preservation..^[4] Further fund raising enabled the purchase of 75069 to be completed before the introduction of VAT, with the locomotive arriving on the SVRSevern Valley Railway from BarryWoodham Brothers Scrapyard, Barry, South Wales. The source of many locomotives now in preservation. by rail on 31 March 1973.^[5][6]

Although the Funds for the three Class 4 locomotives 43106, 80079 and 75069 had separate shareholders, they were closely connected with effectively one group of volunteers working on all three. When 75069 arrived, 43106 (which had arrived in working order) was undergoing an overhaul while 80079 was already awaiting restoration from ex-BarryWoodham Brothers Scrapyard, Barry, South Wales. The source of many locomotives now in preservation. condition. The intention was therefore that work on 75069 would only begin once 43106 and 80079 were in service.

Work on 80079 began in late 1973.^[7] 75069 was initially stored at Bewdley, moving to the headshunt at Bridgnorth in Autumn 1974 after space became available. While work continued on 80079, attention was focussed on obtaining replacement fittings for 75069. The 80079 and 75069 funds jointly published a book "British Railways Steam" in 1975 to help raise funds.^[8]. The 75069 fund also organised a number of railtours, both steam^{[note 3]} and diesel hauled, with profits going towards the locomotive's restoration.

After 80079 entered service in summer 1977, the volunteers turned to 75069 which was moved into the cattle dock at Bridgnorth. Work on the tender took most of 1978, with the body repair work contacted to Wagon Repairs Ltd at Stoke-on-Trent. The first half of 1979 saw the locomotive prepared for a boiler lift which took place on 17 July 1979.^[9] A further SVRASevern Valley Railway Association raffle to help fund the restoration and boiler re-tube had taken place in 1978.^[10]

On 5 November 1982 the boiler was successfully steam tested, after being 'siamesed' to LMR 600 Gordon which provided the injectors. One cylinder liner required replacement; the process of fitting its replacement using liquid nitrogen was filmed and later screened on BBC's 'Midlands Today' in June 1983.^[11] In 1983 another raffle organised by the SVRA Birmingham Branch was held to raise funds for superheater elements.^[12]

On 31 July 1984 the locomotive moved under its own power for the first time, reaching Highley on a light engine trip,^[13] and the restoration was completed in time for the locomotive, still in green undercoat, to take part in the September 1984 Enthusiasts' Weekend.^[11] A full repaint into BRBritish Rail or British Railways lined green then ensued.^[11]

In addition to service on the SVRSevern Valley Railway during the following 10 years, 75069 also made a number of appearances on the main line. In March 1985 during a railtour from Newport to Gloucester it returned to Swindon where it was originally built.^[14] In 1987 the locomotive was due to work a full Cardigan Bay Express season along with 7819 Hinton Manor, but was unable to complete this due to a crack in the back left hand flange of the firebox.^[15] 'Mickey Mouse' 46443 was sent to Machynlleth to deputise and proved a worthy replacement. The firebox was repaired by the insertion of a new copper lap and a re-studded seam;^[16] however subsequent investigation of the boiler led to 75069 missing the 1988 season while the flue tubes were replaced.^[17]

75069 resumed SVRSevern Valley Railway service shortly after Easter in 1989. In Autumn 1990, John Robinson's locomotive notes suggested other locomotive crews could "take a leaf out of Trevor Matthews' book and try to beat his record – all week on 75069 without taking coal."^[18] (a feat undoubtedly made possible by the large BR1B tender). 75069 also returned to main line duties in 1991.

• 

  75069 at Hastings in 1992

75069's last main line tour was a one-way working from Kidderminster to Minehead in April 1994, after which it spent the season on hire to the West Somerset Railway. During the visit, the boiler incurred some failures to tubes and elements and following a return by road, cracks were found in the back firebox flange, resulting in the locomotive being withdrawn from service.^[19]

A full list of 75069's main line appearances between 1984 and 1994 is as follows:

After a lengthy period in storage awaiting overhaul by the SVRSevern Valley Railway, hopes of a return to service were raised in early 2009 when work was carried out to assess the condition of the boiler. However this assessment revealed that significant work would be required^[20] and 1501, seen as a potential quick turnaround, was selected for overhaul instead.^[21] 75069’s Heavy General repair finally began in early 2013^[22]: the boiler barrel and much of the firebox was entirely new and many of the fittings and almost all of the pipework were replaced. A new cab, new smokebox and chimney, replacement steelwork in the tender coal space and new drag box were among other major repairs. Work cost over £900,000 and involved more than 25,000 man hours of effort.^[23][24] Although initially advertised as returning to traffic prior to both the 2017 and 2018 Autumn Steam Galas, the locomotive's first test runs started 11 December 2018 with her boiler exam two days later.^[25] She returned to traffic 16 February 2019 at the start of the season's services.

In the early morning of 22 July 2019, 75069 collided with a fallen tree between Hampton Loade and Country Park Halt while running light engine from Bridgnorth to work a service train from Kidderminster. The locomotive’s bogie was derailed and although the bogie axles were found not to have been bent, a number of front end fittings were damaged including the guard irons, steam heat and vacuum pipes, and a cylinder drain cock casting and drain pipe.^[26] After repairs, the locomotive resumed service on Friday 6 September.

At the end of 2019, 75069 had recorded a total of 63,467 miles in preservation on the SVRSevern Valley Railway. The reported total may include mileage on the main line and on hire to other railways.^[27] The locomotive is owned by The 75069 Fund.

See also

• Steam Locomotives
• The Severn Valley Railway on the main line
• SVR-based locomotives visiting other events

Notes

1. ↑ The additional water capacity was useful in the Southern region where 'third rail' electrification prevented the use of water troughs for taking water on the move.
2. ↑ Originally a yellow circle was used, but this was changed to a triangle to avoid possible confusion with the GWR coloured weight discs used in the Western Region.
3. ↑ At least two of 60009 Union of South Africa's railtours to Scotland were for fundraising on behalf of 75069.

References

1. ↑ Heaton, John, 'Oxted Line Steam: 1961', The Railway Magazine, January 2021
2. ↑ BRDatabase Retrieved 29 January 2015.
3. ↑ Worcester Locomotive Shed: Engines and Train Workings, Steve Bartlet
4. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 22, 23, 24
5. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 28
6. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway Stock Book Ninth Edition
7. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 29
8. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 35
9. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 54
10. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 47
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1 11.2} SVRSevern Valley Railway News 74
12. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 66, 67
13. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 73
14. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 76
15. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 85
16. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 86
17. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 87-91
18. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 97
19. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 110/112
20. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 168
21. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 169
22. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 180
23. ↑ Express Points, January 2019
24. ↑ BBC News 15 February 2019 (Retrieved 16 February 2019)
25. ↑ The Railway Magazine, January 2019, p.66
26. ↑ Steam Railway Magazine Issue 496, p 13, Severn Valley '4MTThe 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.' derailed after hitting tree, statement attributed to ESMP Manager Neil Taylor.
27. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News 210, SVRSevern Valley Railway-based Steam Locomotive Mileage 2017-2019, Duncan Ballard

Links

• BR Standard Class 4 4-6-0 on Wikipedia