Colonel Stephens'Terriers by Brian Janes

First published in issue 99 of The Tenterden Terrier
Spring 2006 Reproduced with permission of then-editor Mr P.D. Shaw and current editor Mr B. Janes

Of all the locomotives on Colonel Stephens’ lines, one type fixes in the memories of enthusiasts: the small ex-London Brighton and South Coast Railway 0-6-0Ts known as Terriers. These extremely pretty, lightweight and competent locomotives became associated with Stephens’ lines, and particularly the Kent & East Sussex Railway, almost continually from their inception to the present day. In all, Stephens and his successors purchased eight Terriers, hired in several more and were probably instrumental in the purchase of one other.

The Terrier had its origins in the need to save costs at a time of great economic depression; when William Stroudley on the London Brighton & South Coast Railway introduced one of the earliest locomotive standardisation policies in 1870, which followed a regime of chaotic individualism by his predecessor, John Chester Craven. The primary motive power requirement was to serve the great surge in the expansion of London, as commuting and the suburban railway developed. The light track of the recently opened South London and East London lines called for a special light locomotive with matching featherweight coaches.

Drawing partly on his earlier design for an engine constructed for his previous employers, the Highland Railway, Stroudley produced a robust and well-constructed locomotive classified appropriately the A (later A1). This made a strong initial impact on the travelling public, footplate staff and technical press and gave a sparkling performance with considerable savings in fuel and maintenance.

Their distinctively snub and friendly appearance based on neat design, particularly of chimney and cab, was a great credit to their designer. Almost immediately the press was reporting that these engines had been christened “The Terriers” although to Victorian enginemen, “Rooters” was the more common expression. With their bright yellow Stroudley livery they continued to dominate the lines for which they were built, enlivening both the murky working class depths of the tunnels of the East London line and the then middle class suburbs of Peckham, Brixton and Clapham with their snap and sparkle.

By 1880 fifty engines had been built, but by 1898 the London Brighton & South Coast Railway had decided that these engines were too small, so they sold 15 and scrapped 11. However, with the success of the motor rail concept of light supplementary trains of one Terrier-powered coach, from 1905 onwards their numbers stabilised. The general utility of the engines caused Douglas Earle Marsh to produce a modernised boiler with a drumhead smokebox that changed the appearance of the front of the locomotives considerably. The resultant engine, reclassified A1X, was, if anything, an even better looking engine than before.

Those engines laid aside were found to be of great utility to light railways and contractors, and Stephens was in the queue. Rother Valley Railway (later K&ESR) No.3 “Bodiam” was his first purchase and eight more were to follow. No doubt there would have been more, but with limited availability because of their success on motor trains

until they were discontinued in WW1 service cutbacks, Stephens had to pick up his Terriers as and when he could. Their history is quite complex.

Kent & East Sussex Light Railway (originally Rother Valley Railway)

The K&ESR owned two Terriers, the first bought in May 1901 and the second in February 1905, becoming No.3 “Bodiam” and No.5 “Rolvenden” respectively. Both were from the initial batch of six engines, four of which eventually came to Stephens’ railways. “Rolvenden”, the former LB&SCR No.71, had the honour of being the first Terrier built. “Bodiam”, although having the first number of the batch as LB&SCR No.70, was actually the last, having bequeathed her cylinders to 71, when a faulty casting had delayed her introduction into service (strange how these sisters were twinned from birth).

Both engines were painted in Stephens’ favourite blue livery with red lining, but without a polished dome. With regular overhauls, including that of “Bodiam” at Eastleigh in 1919 and “Rolvenden” at Brighton in 1917, they gave excellent service until the depression years. They were alike as two peas for much of their lives together even to the near simultaneous acquisition of three rail coal bunker extensions (the LB&SCR extensions had four); the only difference being a long-strapped A1X type door carried by “Rolvenden”, probably acquired at Brighton. Although the two Ilfracombe Goods engines acquired in 1910 and 1914 became the favoured engines, the Terriers were the mainstay of the line in the Edwardian era, and much used thereafter.

Both engines seem to have received their last partial re-tube in late 1928, with “Bodiam” falling into disuse around the time of the railway’s receivership in 1931. (There is photographic evidence of her apparently in steam questionably dated as 12th September in that year.) “Rolvenden” seems to have lasted a little longer. They were then dumped in the works yard but “Bodiam” was resurrected in 1933 and repaired over the next two years, mainly by a Southern Railway fitter at weekends. Although much reported, there is little evidence, apart from anecdotal, to suggest that she incorporated many major parts from her sister, except possibly her tanks.

However some Terrier parts most certainly came from the Shropshire & Montgomery Terriers mentioned below. In the process “Bodiam” acquired her enlarged and distinctive bunker. Re-entering service on 27th December 1934, she was repainted in a bright apple green with yellow lining and, according to Austen’s usual practice, lost her nameplate becoming simply No.3, with the company’s initials appearing on the tank side above the number. Officially withdrawn in 1937, the hulk of “Rolvenden” was finally disposed of by T W Ward in October 1938.

“Bodiam” was replaced by a hired Terrier when its boiler gave out in September 1940. She was out of use until repaired in February 1943 with an A1X pattern boiler and smokebox. She may also have been fitted at this time with the S&MR’s Dido’s tanks acquired in 1941 (see below). Re-boilering was a difficult job for Rolvenden Works, so two K&ESR fitters undertook the work at St Leonards Shed under wartime’s cooperative arrangements. Finished in April 1943 the engine became to all intents and purposes an A1X, whilst retaining the sandboxes on the front splasher like some earlier Isle of Wight rebuilds. Some reports suggest that she did not return home until 7th March 18944 but this cannot now be verified. Further repairs were carried out at Brighton Works in September 1947 where she was repainted a darker green. After Nationalisation, the

engine was taken into British Railways’ stock and further repaired at Ashford in the second half of 1949; remarkably she was repainted again in apple green with yellow ling but as British Railways No.32670. From then on she worked on the K&ESR until dieselisation; then working at Newhaven and elsewhere [including Hayling Island] with occasional returns including the last day special. She returned in 1964, to preservation – a true living embodiment of the continuity of the K&ESR – on whose metals she has been present for all but 9 of its 105 years of operation.

Edge Hill Light Railway

This short mineral line, split in two by an inclined plane, acquired two Terriers for its lower section. The first, No.1, came from the London Brighton & South Coast Railway (via the Longmoor Military Railway, where it had been on loan for war service) in May 1919 and No.2 followed in July 1920. No.1 was an A1X [ex-LBSCR No.73 “Deptford”] but No.2 was still an A1 [ex-LBSCR No.74 “Shadwell”]. According to Tonks they were repainted green with black edges, in the Brighton style, with white lining and lettering. On arrival they were used for the construction of the railway. However, because the railway never became fully operational, no shed was ever available: washing-out, repairs etc were carried out at the Stratford-on-Avon shed of the Stratford-on-Avon and Midland Junction Railway (who were closely associated with the Edge Hill), where one of the locomotives was generally kept as a spare. The railway was built very slowly over the next four years and one of the Terriers was involved in a collision with some runaway wagons at the bottom of the incline in 1924. It appears to have been repaired but the railway closed forever on 27 January 1925 and the engines were then stored at the foot of the incline, under steadily decaying canvas sheets, for the next 21 years. The Southern Railway is reported to have inspected them for possible purchase in 1938 but their condition ensured that the idea was abandoned. The lower part of the EHLR was requisitioned by the government during the Second World War for a munitions depot known as C A D Kineton and this isolated the locomotives. Perhaps, as a consequence, they escaped wartime scrap drives and remained untouched until they finally fell to the scrapman in April and May 1946.

Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Light Railway

In early 1918, during the First World War, and probably as a consequence of the laying of a massive sea mines barrage in the North Sea, the Admiralty had acquired several Terriers using them at Invergordon and Inverness, very close to their progenitor’s birthplace. At the war’s end they appear to have been used individually, presumably on hire, at Dalmuir Distillery, which was near a war surplus disposal depot. Stephens seemed unable to resist the bargains on offer and swept all three of his favourite engines into the net, all unrebuilt A1s: one came in 1921 (“Beulah”) and two in 1923. They became No.7 “Hecate” [ex-LBSCR No.81 “Beulah”], No.8 “Dido” [ex-LBSCR No.38 “Millwall”] and No.9 “Daphne” [ex-LBSCR No.83 “Earlswood”]. In the early days the locos seem to have retained their existing liveries and “Hecate” was certainly in Marsh Umber for a time, with “Dido” in the black livery she had carried on the LB&SCR. Later they were painted in a plainer style, probably sage green.

Although some commentators seem to think these engines were little used, there is no real evidence to support this contention. All seem to have given moderately useful service on the railway but were handicapped by their relative smallness. Although they were rapidly supplanted on some passenger services by the petrol railcar set, they seem to have found a niche for a few years in the 1920s. Tom Rolt records that by the late twenties they were less popular than the Ilfracombe Goods, because they were hardly equal to the morning mixed train to Shrewsbury with its heavy load of roadstone from the Criggion Quarries.