Our First Centenary by Stephen Garrett

First published in issue 1 of The Tenterden Terrier (Spring) 1973
Reproduced with permission of present editor Mr P D Shaw

In 1872 it was proposed to link the towns of Tenterden and Headcorn by a roadside tramway. However, most readers will be aware it was not until 1900 that Tenterden gained its first railway and even later before Headcorn was reached. Nevertheless, 1872 is a date of real importance to members of the Tenterden Railway Company as it was in that year our oldest locomotive was built.

The locomotive concerned is No.3 “Bodiam”. This was one of the first six locomotives of William Stroudley’s A1 Class of 0-6-0 tank engines, later known as ‘Terriers’, built for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. The class was specially designed to cope with the LB&SCR’s increasingly busy suburban services in South London and particularly on the steeply graded East London Railway.

No.3 was originally No.70 on the LB&SCR and named “Poplar”. It entered traffic on 04 December 1872, its entry into service having been delayed by the transfer of its cylinders to fellow locomotive No.71 “Wapping” whose own cylinders had proved faulty.
The fact is important because the cylinder delay meant that the first of the class to go into service was No.72 “Fenchurch” now owned by the Bluebell Railway whose oldest running locomotive therefore pre-dates ours by three months.

During its years with the LB&SCR, No.3 seems never to have strayed far from London. Not that No.3’s life was uneventful – in 1873 it was derailed at Victoria, in 1881 it ran into the back of a train between London Bridge and Battersea, and in 1895 it demolished a set of buffer stops at London Bridge. Such a wayward career might suggest why the LB&SCR had No.3 in mind when it began to dispose of some of its ‘Terriers’ at the turn of the century although again the ‘honour’ of being the first ‘Terrier’ sold out of service belongs to No.72 “Fenchurch” which was sold to the Newhaven Harbour Company in 1898.

In 1901 the Rother Valley Railway, the predecessor of the Kent and East Sussex Railway, required a third engine to supplement the efforts of its Hawthorn Leslie 2-4-0 tank locomotives “Tenterden” and “Northiam”. The ‘Terriers’ were ideal for the Rother Valley, being powerful but light, and so it was that “Poplar” became “Bodiam”. The price charged by the LB&SCR for No.3 was £650. Being short of cash the Rother Valley borrowed £500 from Barclays Bank in return for which Barclays were allowed to fix a plaque proclaiming their part in the transaction to the engine. Whether such a plaque was ever affixed is unknown but the LB&SCR carried out a number of alterations before delivering No.3 The locomotive was painted royal blue, the livery of the RVR, a vacuum brake replaced the Westinghouse brake previously carried and extra coal rails were fitted.

In 1905 No.3 was joined on what was now the Kent & East Sussex Railway by its old companion No.71 “Wapping” which became No.5 “Rolvenden”. Little of note is known of No.3’s career on the Kent & East Sussex, apart from an overhaul at Rolvenden in 1923, until it was laid aside, apparently worn out, in 1930. No.3 was not cut up immediately, Colonel Stephens locomotives rarely were, but instead lingered chimneyless in Rolvenden yard. In 1932, however, No.3 was taken in hand and by 1933 had been completely renovated. During the renovation No.3 acquired the chimney from No.5 and the side tanks from another ‘Terrier’ 81 “Beulah” which had since 1921 been No.7 “Hecate” on the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway. It is probable that many other parts from No.5 went into the rebuilding of No.3, thus repaying the 1872 cylinder debt. The rebuilding also gave No.3 a much larger coal bunker than any other ‘Terrier’. On the debit side No.3 lost its nameplates and shed its blue livery for a light green.

By 1943 No.3 was again in need of rebuilding, this time acquiring a new boiler of the improved A1X pattern. The boiler used had previously been carried by ‘Terrier’ 655, originally No.55 “Stepney” but had been overhauled in 1939 and was therefore in good condition. The facilities at Rolvenden must have been insufficient for the task of re-boilering as the work was carried out by two Kent and East Sussex fitters at St. Leonard’s shed using Southern Railway facilities.

In 1947 No.3 appeared in a film, ‘The Loves of Joanna Godden’, for which purpose it travelled to Lydd and was disguised with plates reading ‘SE&CR’ on its side tanks. Immediately afterwards No.3 entered Brighton Works for the fitting of a new smokebox and left the Works in a coat of dark green paint boldly outlined in yellow. At Nationalisation in 1948, No.3 did not immediately lose its Kent and East Sussex identity. In 1949 it was renumbered 32670 at Ashford but remained painted green until overhauled at Brighton in 1954.

Until 1954 No.3 had continued to work over the erstwhile Kent and East Sussex but after its overhaul it was sent to Fratton to work the Hayling Island branch and therefore missed the end of regular passenger services to Tenterden. In 1956 No.3 was at Dover where it was called upon to rescue a snowbound B4 0-4-0 tank locomotive No.30084. Between February and May 1956 No.3 was lent to Bowater’s at Ridham dock. In 1957 No.3 returned to assist with freight services between Tenterden and Robertsbridge but spent 1958 at Brighton. In 1959 another return was made to Tenterden , this time to haul a ramblers’ excursion and to run freight trains for nine days whilst the resident diesel locomotive was repaired. By 1960 No.3 was back at Brighton and during its stay there lost its copper-capped chimney taken from No.5 in 1923. The chimney was required by the first of the ‘Terriers’ to be preserved, No.55 “Stepney” owned by the Bluebell Railway. In its place No.3 received a rather worn cast iron chimney.