|
||||||||||
WELCOME
TO THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE TERRIER TRUST |
|
Reproducing the article in issue 47 of The Tenterden Terrier Winter 1988 entitled “Getting Tanked Up” concerning the purchase of two Terrier tanks by the K&ESR from the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire in September 1941 proved of considerable interest on the component question of No.3 Bodiam. Nothing much can be read into the date of the original invoice from the S&MR, being some 14 weeks after No.3’s withdrawal. And little can be presumed from the date of settlement being less than a week later, bearing in mind this was essentially an internal transaction. What is more intriguing is the fact that the tanks would hardly have been shipped within that week. It seems implausible the settlement would have been made in advance, possession being nine-tenths of the law, so the reasonable supposition is that the tanks were already in situ on the K&ESR. Tying in with this statement is the record in the article which states that the Dido/Millwall tanks were still in situ at Kinnerley in 1939 so may well have been transferred to the K&ESR sometime in the ensuing two years. A Terrier would not run on the S&MR again as its last survivor, Daphne/Earlswood, had been purchased by the SR in January 1939. With war looming, if not a state of conflict actually existing, and spares likely to be at a premium, it seems highly probably that any worthwhile spares would be transferred to where they could be of use, particularly awkward consumable parts like Terrier side tanks. Now there is the question of the alteration to Bodiam’s welded patch on its left hand tank after its 1947 Brighton rebuild. It is clearly visible in the picture published with the article, of 26 April 1947, but in the BR Inspection Train scene at Bodiam presumed 04 February 1948 published in The Tenterden Terrier Summer 1985 issue 37 page 28/1 and Spring 1991 issue 54 page 37/1, as well as the intervening view at Tenterden Town taken in 1947 that appeared in the 1999 third edition of Stephen Garrett’s history of the line, there appears to be reinforcing plates at the bottom and side. For the St Leonard’s rebuild, could the right-hand tank have been replaced and the left hand tank patched up? Possibly. Paint would have disguised the welded patch for a period but the 26 April 1947 shot is more intriguing. Markings on the left-hand tank look odd. There is a straight line at the bottom of the tank but a rather wavier line towards the top is indistinct away from the front of the engine and nearer the cab. This patch almost seems to incorporate the initials and number area so may be from a discarded tank at Rolvenden. The balance of probability is that the Brighton work involved further repairs to a side tank already in poor condition, but still serviceable. Now comes an interesting twist to the story. In the very next issue of The Tenterden Terrier dated Spring 1989 issue 48 is a letter by the esteemed railway historian R W Kidner, reproduced by kind permission of Mr P D Shaw:- “Sir – The article in your winter issue about buying side tanks for “Bodiam” reminds me that in May 1940 I was serving on an AA site at Aldington (Kent), and next door there was a small stone crushing plant; the water supply for this was a Terrier side-tank. Presumably this must have been one that was spare after the 1933 rebuilding of “Bodiam” using some bits from “Rolvenden”. Does this appear on the sales side of the ledger Mr Miller is studying?” To which, to my knowledge, there were no further developments. I don’t for one minute imagine there would have been an invoice around that time had the tank been off Rolvenden, as this engine had been substantially dismantled in the early 1930s and elements, possibly including the chimney, were incorporated into the No.3 creation, as distinct from Bodiam. There is photographic evidence that suggests Bodiam’s side tanks, notably the right hand one, were worn out or rotted out soon after withdrawal in or before 1930, and reports of Rolvenden’s tanks being dumped in the yard. So could it be that the tank Mr Kidner saw at Aldington in May 1940 may have only been delivered comparatively recently via the K&ESR and that when the other was earmarked for the early 1940s rebuild, now was the time to stomp up the cash for both at a nominal rate? Entries in two other issues of The Tenterden Terrier provide other clues… The article Where are they now? by John Miller was published in Spring 1992 issue 57 looks at nameplates that as survived. In early 1948, the Stores Superintendent A B MacLeod wrote to W H Austen on the subject of Railway Relics for preservation. Austen wrote to Fitter Sam Austen, no relation, on 03 February 1948 who replied the next day. |
| Charity
No. 1050480 |
| |
Surely it cannot have been a coincidence he replied so promptly, that day also being the BR/Southern Region inspection train day!
Pairs of brass nameplates for both Tenterden and Northiam survived as did cast-iron ones for Bodiam, Rolvenden and Hesperus. There were four Hawthorne Leslie brass oval makers’ plates and even two brass nameplates Ringing Rock carried by Hesperus when in Great Western ownership from 1989 to 1914 which were subsequently used on another Manning Wardle on the Selsey Tramway. Smallest of all was just one cast iron plate from…Dido.
Accompanying notes say Dido had found its way to Rolvenden because one on that engine’s side tanks had been used in the 1934 rebuild of Bodiam. This flies in the face of the reference to Dido’s tanks still being at Kinnerley in 1939. So patently one of these statements is not correct. The 1941 invoice, after all, was for a pair of tanks and from this evidence we can be reasonably sure they were both off Dido.
Colonel Stephens had a penchant for the name Hecate. No.4, the great white elephant of K&ESR fame is arguably the best known but we mustn’t forget the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Terrier of the same name. In a much earlier article by Stephen Garrett, he wrote the following in Spring 1977 issue 12, again reproduced with kind permission by Mr P D Shaw
“By contrast the biography of the fourth and last HECATE is comparatively straightforward. Like our BODIAM and SUTTON this was originally one of the LB&SCR “Terrier” 0-6-0T locomotives, in this case No.81 BEULAH built in 1880. The LB&SCR disposed of BEULAH to the Admiralty in 1918 for use at Inverness but it returned to civilian life when sold to the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire in 1921. It was later joined there by two further Terriers, originally No.38 MILLWALL and No.83 EARLSWOOD and the three became Nos. 7 8 and 9, HECATE, DIDO and DAPHNE respectively. All three served usefully during the 1920s but were scarcely in the peak of condition when acquired and both HECATE and DIDO were withdrawn in 1930. Plans to transfer HECATE’s boiler to DIDO were not proceeded with but HECATE’s wheels and axles were dispatched to the Kent & East Sussex in part payment for outstanding debts at £3 a ton and these were understood to have been used in the resurrection of BODIAM. HECATE was finally dismantled in 1932 and its boiler accompanied that of its earlier namesake (S&MR No.2) in the consignment sold in 1933.”
The above would seem to indicate that there were plans afoot in the very early 1930s to incorporate the best bits of Hecate in a resurrection of Dido. This would be totally logical as the K&ESR were apparently doing the same with Bodiam and Rolvenden to create No.3. In all likelihood the nail in the coffin was that neither boiler was deemed repairable in the prevailing economic conditions, and with Daphne/Earlswood soldiering on, at least for a short time, little incentive. By 1937 the latter had been out of service for some time, but, crucially, was still intact. So any spares from the first two might be cascaded into the third if there was to be a Rolvenden-style resurrection.
The interesting comment herein is the dispatch of wheels and axles to the K&ESR. Were some or all used in the phoenix reconstruction of No.3 for certainly pictures of No.5 Rolvenden throughout the 1930s point to a gradual diminution rather that cataclysmic stripping and then scrapping? And could Hecate’s tanks, minus nameplates, have been shipped to Rolvenden as well, to be used in the 1932/3 rebuild, being in better condition than any of the tanks off Bodiam and Rolvenden?
I think it
is quite possible that the 1930s version of No.3 included elements from
at least two other Terriers and possibly a third and that the St Leonard’s
rebuild subsequently incorporated at least one of Dido’s tanks which
subsequently had to be repaired up due to corrosion or other damage. It
would be nice to think that the tank Mr Kidner saw at Aldington still
had its Dido plate attached!
- E N D -
HN-20/02/2006