‘Bodiam’ Returns by Gerald Siviour

First published in issue 88 of The Tenterden Terrier Summer 2002
Reproduced with permission of then-editor Mr P D Shaw and current editor Mr B Janes

Few standard gauge heritage lines can claim that their trains are hauled by engines that worked on the railway when it opened over a century ago. Yet this will soon be possible on the K&ESR, which is due to receive in July, from Ian Riley’s works at Bury, the fully overhauled chassis of a Stroudley Terrier which cam e to the line in 1901, just a year after it opened. A new boiler awaits the chassis so that on completion of the overhaul at Rolvenden, the engine, thought to be the third oldest standard gauge engine working in preservation, should continue its active life, after several brushes with the scrapman, well into the twenty first century.

The engine is Terrier 0-6-0T BR No.32670, formerly LBSCR No.70 “Poplar”. It entered service from Brighton Works on 4th December 1872, one of the first group of six of this famous class of which fifty were eventually built. They worked all over the LBSCR system until traffic growth created a need for larger engines for the suburban and other local services which the Terriers had done so much to develop.

The sale in June 1898 for No.72 “Fenchurch” (now on the Bluebell Railway) to the Newhaven Harbour Company brought home to the LBSCR that there was a considerable potential second hand market for Terriers at around £500 to £700 each and, of the 34 engines withdrawn by the company before the 1923 grouping, 24 were sold to new owners. The group of light railways engineered by Colonel Holman F. Stephens became a favourite destination. “Poplar” was the first one sold to the Colonel in May 1901 (at a purchase price of £650) for use on the Rother Valley Light Railway, where it became No.3 “Bodiam”. It ran at first between Robertsbridge and Tenterden but in 1905 the line was extended to Headcorn as the Kent and East Sussex Railway, and for over forty years the 21.5 mile route became the engine’s home. There was no need to venture further as all servicing and repairs could be carried out in the company’s works at Rolvenden.

In 1905 No.3 was joined by No.671 “Wapping”, also built in 1872, and given the K&ESR identity No.5 “Rolvenden”. Both Terriers were modified at Brighton Works on sale. Their Westinghouse brake gear was removed in favour of vacuum brakes and bunker capacity was increased by the acquisition of coal rails. Both acquired a new blue livery, with their names painted inside the company’s emblem. Nameplates were fitted about 1907.

The Terriers were very much at home among the motley collection of mainly second-hand engines which made up the working fleet of a Colonel Stephens railway. The grouping of 1923 did not affect the K&ESR but by the 1930s the fortunes of the light railways were very much in decline and both Terriers lay derelict in Rolvenden Yard.

Eventually it was No.3 that was restored to service using parts from No.5 and from No.7 “Hecate” of the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Light Railway. No.3 lost its “Bodiam” nameplates in 1934 and also the distinctive Stroudley toolbox behind the bunker, which was increased in height. However it was not until 1943 that the engine was reboilered to

become an A1X, the work being done at St Leonards, bringing No.3’s first trip away from its home railway in four decades.

Until the late 1940s No.3 still lettered K&ESR, wore the company’s light green livery but a change of lifestyle came in 1948, when it passed into the ownership of BR. Rolvenden Works closed and the running shed became a sub-depot of Ashford (74A), where No.3 became 32670 in September 1949. Nationalisation meant that other Terriers became available to work on the KES line and 32678 in particular became a regular engine alongside No.32670 working mixed trains on the Tenterden to Rolvenden section, where tender engines were not allowed. When this closed to passenger service in January 1954, 32670 became something of a nomad, turning up at such locations as Dover, Littlehampton, Newhaven and Brighton. However, it still occasionally returned to its old home to share in the working of the Robertsbridge to Tenterden goods service and to work enthusiasts’ specials, including that run on 11th June to mark the complete closure of the line.

32670’s last regular BR assignment was as one of a fleet of Terriers based at Fratton and Eastleigh for working the Havant to Hayling Island branch, where severe weight restrictions were in force on Langston Harbour bridge. Because of its suitability for this duty it received a general overhaul as late as May 1960, emerging from Eastleigh Works in full lined black livery with decals. Its BR career ended on 3rd November 1963 when it took part in the working of the LCGB (1) Hayling Farewell Rail Tour, after which it was withdrawn to await sale or scrapping.

By this time the preservation movement was getting under way and moves were afoot to re-open part of the K&ESR. The impecunious preservation society had no money to buy this survivor of the Colonel Stephens era but salvation came through a private purchase by the brothers Ron and Vic Wheele of Brighton. It was inspected in steam at Eastleigh and a price of £750 agreed – very nearly the same amount paid by Colonel Stephens over sixty years earlier. She set out for Robertsbridge via Brighton and Hastings on 10th April 1964, proudly bearing a headboard ‘Returning Home to The Kent and East Sussex Railway’, reaching Robertsbridge the following day. At that time it was not possible to proceed further so No.3, as she once again became by the simple expedient of removing the last four digits of the BR number, stayed at Robertsbridge, finding work shunting at a local flour mill when their resident P-class 0-6-0T required repairs. In September it was joined by another Terrier, BR No.32650 (once No.50 “Whitechapel” of the LBSCR), on loan from the London Borough of Sutton. It remains at Tenterden to this day. (2)

A further ten years elapsed while the legal battles were resolved and money raised to re-open part of the K&ESR line. Rolling stock was gathered at Rolvenden, where No.3 was steamed occasionally and in 1968 repainted in green livery with replica “Bodiam” nameplates. When the line eventually reopened between Tenterden and a point south of Rolvenden on 3rd February 1974 No.10 (32650) did the honours by working the first train, but No.3 was back in service by Easter and was the regular Saturday engine hauling two coach trains for the next three years. In September 1977, suffering from a wasted tubeplate and thoroughly worn out after seventeen years since her last general overhaul, she was withdrawn from service followed by No.10 in 1980.

Throughout its life the K&ESR has suffered from being under capitalised and the early years of the preservation era were no exception. After the euphoria of reopening, passenger numbers remained stagnant or actually fell and, under constant pressure to extend the operating line, the board had no money for the overhaul of the Terriers. Not until 1983 was money made available so that work could start on No.3. The boiler, like that of No.10, was sent to Resco Railways at Erith near Dartford, where work was carried out on the tubeplate and a new smokebox was fitted. The tubes were considered good for another two years, but platework on the lower portion of the outer firebox had to be cut away and new plate welded in. Meanwhile at Rolvenden, the motion was overhauled and cab floor platework replaced; the boiler returning from Resco in November 1983.

Thus began the lengthy job of re-assembly, much of the work being done out of doors. Various modifications, including the fitting of blow-down valves and a steam brake, were also made. The decision was taken to repaint No.3 in BR lined black livery, with the lion and wheel emblem, in contrast to the K&ESR green in which No.10 had re-entered service. Finish in both cases was to a very high standard and, when 32670 returned to service in August 1984, the two little centenarians standing together were an absolute picture, especially when they were used on the railway’s Pullman Dining train. These middle years of the 1980s were good ones for the K&ESR, with passenger figures rising and the Terriers a major attraction. In 1985 32670 worked the highest mileage of the K&ESR engines.